The war of the Riders: Part II - Ebrithil
by Shadeslayer458
Summary: Eragon is searching for The Mystery Master to gain a chance at defeating Oathbreaker. After his training with Du Ebrithil, he tries to return to Alagaesia, but Du Ebrithil stopped him for something.
1. Du Ebrithil

**Chapter 1**

 **Sorry this took so long to upload. I had a few problems with making a new story. Apparently my antivirus doesn't like FF and so I deleted it. I thank all the people who have supplied me with support and given me the heart and reason to continue writing this. Anyway, this is the first chapter and the second part of this story.**

'Shadeslayer, he's there,' Hero said, pointing towards a corner.

'I see him. Let's take a walk shall we?'

They walked towards the door of the tavern. The Shade owned the tavern and used it as a source of its food. From what they had learned, the Shade took one human every night and ate the poor person. He had come to slay him and end the rumour of the tyranny on the building. It was the only tavern in the city and he was one of the few people with the bravado enough to be a regular attendant to it. Du Ebrithil was also a shade hunter. It helped him pass the time. Being immortal without immortal company was distressing. His companions would die one after the other and it was quite saddening to watch the only people close to him die in quick succession due to age. He didn't have anything to do. No duties, no dragon like the Riders, no elf, no mate. He had nothing. He owned the things he wore on him every day. His clothes and his weapons. People called him Du Ebrithil because of the nickname his oldest companion, Eragon had given him. The man had been honourable, but one day, he had attacked Du Ebrithil in pure drunkenness. He had then left Eragon on his own, bleeding from a large wound on his left cheek, directly under his eye, travelling down to his bowels. After that day he had never seen him again. Eragon was too good a swordsman for Du Ebrithil to allow him to escape. With the skills Du Ebrithil had taught Eragon, he could wreak havoc, and nobody would be able to stop him. After him, everyone he ever got close to called him by the nickname _The Mystery Master._ Mystery, because nobody alive other than he had any idea who he was.

Hero went straight through the door of the tavern while Du Ebrithil free ran up the crevices in the alleyway. The plan was to find the shade and shove a blade or arrow straight through his heart without him noticing. He had battalions upon battalions of bewitched soldiers at his command and it would cause them a great deal of time hacking them all down one after the other.

He looked around the room, although it was dark outside, his father had enchanted him with the ability to see any sort of heat through his eyes at will. It helped him whenever he went hunting, or when he was searching for a target. He tried to stay as anonymous as he could on each of his slaying missions, but they all ended up being too gory for anyone not to notice. Every time, he left a mark on the area he killed a shade on. This made the neighbouring areas begin making investigations and then they found out that a man with a hood covering the most part of his face had just left the town. He hoped that this kill would be as simple as he always dreamed.

The room he had climbed into had been rented out by an old customer which had been eaten, who knows how long ago. From his experience, he had found that this was the first shade to ever eat humans, and the first to ever sleep. Shades are easy to kill with a sword, but not with magic. If they had the time to ever use magic, he would have died two centuries ago.

He walked out of the room. The shade wasn't there and it wouldn't help him to wait until the sun rose. The tavern had two floors. The ground floor was for the drinking area, and the floor upstairs was for those wishing to spend the night in Wallkill.

Du Ebrithil searched four rooms until he found the shade. It was asleep, and he didn't want it to wake up. Shades made a horrible sound as they died and he hoped that if they were asleep, they wouldn't scream. He pulled out two shurikens and threw them at the neck of the sleeping creature. The blades stopped halfway through the air and fell to the ground.

 _Damn it!_

Why didn't he think about it earlier! The shade would have put wards around himself. An evil cackle filled the echoing room. Du Ebrithil didn't wait for another moment to pass. He pulled two katanas from their sheath on his back and charged at the shade. The bed was stationed next to the window so Du Ebrithil tackled him out through it. Shattering glass fell around the two as they landed a punch on each other. Because he had been the one to tackle, he was on top, giving him the advantage of landing on him. The shade hit the ground on his back and shouted something in anger. He began casting a spell but Du Ebrithil stopped him from saying anything by punching his jaw. He had dropped his katanas when they had landed because of the force. They were a good ten feet away. He pulled out two swords from his sheath and crossed them on either side of its head. With one swipe, he locked the spine and pulled the head off the shade. Retrieving his weapons, he ran for the cover of the forest to the west side of the tavern. He mentally contacted Hero and waited. A few moments later he was joined by Hero. They both ran for the gates of the city to escape before anyone found out. Their assassination was complete and so was their time in Wallkill.

'I see you were successful. That body already had a few flies on it,' Hero said as they left the city. Hero was a seventeen year old man. Too young to be considered as even an adolescent when compared with Mystery Master's age, but still a man when compared with the humans he had lived with before they had died. He had bright blonde hair and a pale white face. He hard cerulean eyes and a long thin nose. His appearance made him blend in with a crowd of normal people because he had such an ordinary face. His objective had been to make a racket loud enough for Du Ebrithil to kill the shade should it wake up, which it did, and make it blend in with the ruckus.

'Ebrithil, I found out some information from a few travellers while I was there,' Hero said while they ran through the dense forest towards the gates of the city.

'Pray tell,' he replied excitedly. Hero found out a lot of things in taverns, but he never thought of any of them as worth telling him. Whenever he did, it was something which he always considered valuable information.

'There was tell about a blue Rider looking for you. According to the drunk people I heard this from, he came back from the dead after a gem was put inside him. They also said he rid the kingdom of Alagaësia of someone called Galbatorix. A powerful magician and swordsman. They didn't know why but they knew that he was looking for you desperately. They said his name was Eragon Shadeslayer.'

Du Ebrithil immediately stumbled. During his time with Eragon, he had slayed his first shade. He had also assisted Eragon with his first blood on a shade. He remembered the words coming out of the pitiful man's face when he had told Du Ebrithil in the ancient language that he would find him and kill him. Now, he was a Rider and was looking for him desperately according to Hero.

'Hero… are you sure your sources are right. They were drunk weren't they? They probably got mixed up?' he said hopefully.

'No Ebrithil. He wasn't the only one to speak of a blur Rider. There were many, but the only had handfuls of knowledge about him and what he is doing at the moment,' Hero replied worriedly. He hadn't told his current companion about Eragon before, but the way he was reacting must have made it quite obvious that he was scared. He stood up again and they continued their sprint out of the city. The Riders held jurisdiction over Alagaësia, but nobody had ever said anything about lands outside the empire or within reach of the elven forest.

He could go and hide with the elves. He knew them well from one of his shade searches, but he would have problems getting into the heart of the forests where the elves he knew came from. He had once made a foolish attempt at sneaking into the forest and had been attacked by Gilderien the Wise. They had fought and he had just escaped with his life. The elf had been powerful enough to control storms. Lightning had struck the ground around him and he had only escaped because of his agility and his speed. The lightning bolts from the sky would have initially torn him apart. He wouldn't find shelter there either. He would have to stop his shade hunting for a few years and go into hiding until Eragon stopped his search for Du Ebrithil. Once they were out of the city, he looked at the sky. Dread filled him to the very brim. There, flying towards him, was a dragon the size of a mountain he had once seen near the Spine…

 **This chapter was an introduction to a new OC I mentioned at the end of my last story. I originally got my inspiration for this character from Assassin's Creed, so if any of you wonder how he looks, go on google images and search for Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward or Arno Dorian. You'll find out how I imagined him to look. As for Hero, he is NOT my remake of Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6. He was just a name my younger brother gave me. I just asked him and he gave me a name. That's how most of my OC's have worked out: Maximus, Matthias…**

 **Anyhow, leave a review on how you think this chapter is and how you would like to see the plot turn out. I'll see if I can add a few things that any of you want into it.**


	2. I'm not him!

**Chapter 2**

 **I still don't know how many people have viewed my story, but I will still continue because I still have proof that people are. I have one review and no views. Doesn't make sense.**

 **I'm also sorry to say that school is starting on the 1** **st** **so I won't be able to update during the week. I'll only be able to do so during the weekends. I sincerely apologise, but I have a life to live. I'm already a year younger than the grade I'm going into and it's quite tough handling work that is higher than you. Just a heads up notice. I still have a few more blissful days.**

 **I also request that if any of you find any grammatical mistakes or misspelled words, PM me, or leave a review on it, and I'll get it fixed.**

'Please make sure you return to me,' his mate begged him.

Eragon had spent the last month gathering information from different cities regarding The Mystery Master. He used the same tactics Brom had once shown him. He found a tavern and found a few travellers. He would then join them and pay for all the drinks they could possibly consume. After that, he acted as if he was drunk, and then interrogate them. In this manner, he managed to gather as much. The Mystery Master was a man who spent his life just beyond the jurisdiction of Alagaësia and the dragon Riders. He hunted shades for people and made his living out of the money he received from his assassinations. He also learned that the man was spectacular with a sword. Better even, than Arya who was the only person other than Oathbreaker who could best him in a sword dual. According to some people, he was often addressed as Du Ebrithil. Oromis had, in the meanwhile, taught him several things he could now do with the gem inside him. Wherever Oromis's spirit-body was, he could supply energy to him and make a difference to the real world. For example, if Oromis was standing next to a person whom upon Eragon had a desperate urge to punch, Oromis could do it with his own fist, but Eragon would need to supply the energy to do so.

Arya had become close to insane when Eragon had told her that he would be gone for even longer. She had begged him on her hands and knees to either not go, or take her with him. He had rejected both ideas. She was a queen and her duty called to her, as his to him. She had argued that he was also the king of the elves. He had countered saying that she had been the one to make him king. He hadn't done it of his own accord. She had set forward several different arguments, some of which he countered successfully, others which forced him to stay quiet. Eventually, after what had seemed like a never ending hour, she had given in. So far in their relationship, she had been the dominant partner. Whatever she said or did, he complied. Out of his own will. This was the only time that he wouldn't allow her to control him. He didn't mind the way Arya manipulated him, but it still scared him because of how powerless he was without her. During his time searching for information, he had craved her presence. Her domination causing him to be correct in most of the decisions he made.

'I will Arya. I will. But for now you need to let me go or else there won't be any return.'

Reluctantly, Arya released him. Saphira laughed which sounded more like a bugle than anything else. He mounted her quickly and Saphira leaped into the sky. The area she had lifted off was a cloud of dust from the vacuum of air. Fírnen watched the two of them longingly. He had threatened Eragon regarding Saphira, saying that if she didn't return, he would be hunted by a great green dragon for the rest of his life, and that even Arya wouldn't be able to keep him safe. Eragon didn't want to look back because he knew about the pangs of separation from experience. Looking back would only add more salt to the wound. They were to fly for the rest of the day. According to a source in Gil'ead, the last anyone had seen of The Mystery Master had been in a city named Wallkill, near the northern edge of the elven forests. He had left the city with a trail of a dead shade outside the tavern.

Eragon was going to take advantage of this and cut him off from outside the city, seeing as it was close to the border of Du Weldenvarden. Eragon had spent a lot of time on dragon back recently. It made him bored, but Saphira loved it. Flying joyed her beyond belief. Although she spent most of her time flying, it still thrilled her to be so free. Oromis sat with his legs dangling off the left side of Saphira. After a seemingly eternal flight, the tree line ended. Plains stretched out as far as he could see. After a half hour, a city came into his field of view. The walls of the city were white and it was only a little smaller than Ilirea. There was an orchard to the west of the city and Eragon could make out two small figures heading towards them one was in white and the other in black. The sun was yet to rise and Eragon decided to intercept the two. Perhaps they could provide him with information.

'Beware young Rider,' Oromis warned. 'They may look innocent, but these people aren't your average Alagaësian populace. They detest the dragons because they were not included in the pact made by the elves. They tried several times to wage war but we elves barred their way and thus, nobody had any idea they hated them so much.'

'Yes Ebrithil,' Eragon replied.

Saphira descended and Eragon jumped off. The men in front of him had their swords drawn. The one on the right had a hood that covered his face. He had a long cloak that went down to below his knees and an armada of weapons. He had more weapons than Rya did although Eragon didn't recognise most of them. The ones he did recognise was an axe, two swords, two katanas, throwing knives, throwing hatchets, two crossbows, a bow and a quiver of arrows and another containing crossbow bolts. The weapons were, unlike Rya, exposed. They were all attached on the outside of his clothes. The man on his left, looked more like a boy, except for the facial hair making Eragon think differently. He had bright blonde hair and a pale white face. He looked so ordinary that it seemed as if he had been disguised. The man on the right spoke first.

'Hello Eragon,' he started. Eragon's hand flew to Brisingr's hilt. The man knew his name which put him in danger. He drew Brisingr in one deft move, but was soon disarmed. The man on the right span on the spot, twisting his sword in an awkward way. A clang resounded through the gloomy air of the rising sun as Brisingr flew out of his hands and into the bark of one of the trees. Eragon was astounded. The man had seemed as though the sword was about to fall out of his hands, but instead, had disarmed him in one swing. Eragon stood gaping at the hand which hand been holding Brisingr. He reached for the magic in him and started reciting an incantation. A four bladed disk flew out from the hand of the hooded stranger and cut him on his neck. He felt a prickly sensation as Oromis's skin grew over the wound.

'Not as fast as you used to be are you?' he taunted. Eragon was confused. This man was acting as if they had known each other long ago.

Saphira growled slightly, causing the man on the left to shift uncomfortably.

'I'm sorry… have we met?' he asked tentatively.

'Yes. You heal fast. What happened to the scar I left you all those years ago?' he asked.

Realisation struck him hard in the face. Eragon Oathbreaker had had a long scar trailing down the side of his cheek. That's why he had called him Eragon. He had probably found out that he was looking for him and mistaken him for Oathbreaker since they both had the same name.

'Do you mean one from under my eye?' Eragon questioned. He wanted to make sure his discovery made any sense before he made assumptions.

'Yes. You don't even seem to remember it do you? Remember the promise you made that day? Remember how you treated the person who taught you so much and cared for you for so long? Remember how you attacked him and made him do something he never thought he could possibly do to a student like you?'

'I'm not him!' Eragon protested. 'I'm Eragon Shadeslayer. Kingkiller. Argetlam. Konungr abr alfakyn. Not the one you're talking about! The Eragon you know is the one that attacked me. He blew off a half of my being and made me believe I was in the clutches of death. My mate took me back to Du Weldenvarden and put this gem into me.' Eragon took off his tunic for a brief moment before showing him the gem from Oromis's sword.

He then picked up Brisingr and cut himself on the arm. Blood didn't come out as the man had expected and the wound cleared away, replaced with the skin of his old master.

 **Leave a review.**


	3. Training

**Chapter 3**

 **Only today and tomorrow. :'(**

'Let me see your palms,' Du Ebrithil ordered.

Eragon held them out and his new teacher began examining them. This was exactly the same thing Oromis had done with him on their first encounter.

'You've had a hard life. Many obstacles have barred you in your journey to success. You have plentiful experience with a sword, but not near enough. You also had a target. I can't see what it was, but it was hard. Very hard but you succeeded nevertheless. There is also someone that you wished to be with for a long time. Your heart yearned for her, but you only found your way into her heart quite recently. I can't see it very well, but I think it was Arya Dröttning of the elves. A lot of the elves envy you, but don't dare to approach you,' he said while Eragon blushed. 'You have also brought someone with you. I cannot see him but you can. There is also a gem in your chest. It is the reason you were not wounded by the shuriken I threw at you.'  
He paused for a while but exclaimed in surprise a few moments later.

Oromis suddenly piped in. 'Quite accurate. I must say I wouldn't have been able to derive all of that from just your hands.'

'Ah! This is interesting. You've come across someone called Eragon right?' he asked.

'Yes. Why? Do you know him?'

Du Ebrithil replied in a dark and mournful voice. 'Worse. I had the burden of teaching him. He was a good student. He was also a Shadeslayer. I help him thrust a blade through the very core of his first shade. He was the one who gave me the name Du Ebrithil. One day he thought he could best me in a duel, but he was drunk. He tried his very hardest, but I left a scar on him which should have seen him dead. I drank that night too, but my father's spell doesn't allow the drink to cloud my judgement. I never saw him after that day. According to your hands, he manipulated the clouds to send forth lightning upon you. I have no idea how he managed to do that, but the only person other than him that can do that is Gilderien the Wise. I personally witnessed it happening… now then! You came to me to learn. You have a little less than two years to become stronger than what I myself have created out of that fiend. I will use the next few months, but then you will need to come with me to someone else to complete your training.'

'Yes Ebrithil,' Eragon replied.

'Prepare yourself!' he shouted suddenly. He looked at Hero and nodded. Hero stood up and drew his sword. Du Ebrithil then walked over to a stone and seated himself.

Eragon drew Brisingr in preparation for a duel. Hero charged at him and did the same disarming move Du Ebrithil had done on him the day before. Eragon tried to parry it, but his sword became locked at the handguard and slipped from his grip. Saphira looked away in shame. He had been disarmed in the same way twice in a row.

'Fool! Jump backwards! It is easy enough to escape! You cannot attempt to block or parry a move that I myself made up. Try again!'

Eragon picked up Brisingr and prepared for another assault. Hero attempted to disarm him again and Eragon jumped backwards. Thinking the exercise was over, he let his guard down. Hero straightened himself and leaped at Eragon again, landed a square punch on his nose. He didn't feel any pain, but knew exactly how it must look. Hero volleyed the punch with a knee to the stomach but was a tad bit too slow. Eragon wheeled to his left, causing Hero to lose his footing. He then swung Brisingr in an arc and stopped it an inch away from Hero's nape.

'Good. Very good. You recovered from your slip up well. Now let's see how you stack up against him in a proper duel against him.'

Eragon knelt on the ground and patted his hand on the ground to gather the dust. He needed a firm grip on his sword. He faced his opponent and took a fighting stance. Hero feinted a strike to the left and fooled Eragon enough to make a quick change of direction to his right. Seeing his mistake, Eragon rolled over to his left in an attempt to evade the new swipe. Hero turned towards him and jabbed directly at his thigh. Eragon countered it with a low parry and spun around. Using the momentum, he elbowed the boy just below the neck. His left side was unguarded and Hero counteracted with a strike on his ribcage. The strike was painless and Eragon didn't need to recoil in any way. He spun again and elbowed him on the other side, causing a gap in his opponent's guard. He hacked at Hero's abdomen, but missed. He didn't give up. He volleyed the strike with a punch to Hero's face. He stumbled backwards and Eragon swung sideways towards his neck.

'Dead,' he said. He hadn't noticed, but he was panting.

'Well done.' Oromis complimented. Took you longer than I expected, but I guess it wasn't as easy as it looked. He is Du Ebrithil's student after all.'

Eragon smiled at the praise. Du Ebrithil walked over to the two of them. Healing Hero, he drew his own sword. He blocked it with magic and pointed it at Eragon.

'I now challenge you to a battle.' Eragon started to block his blade, but didn't get a chance to do a few inches before Du Ebrithil jumped at him. Eragon quickly pulled his guard up and parried the blow. Du Ebrithil volleyed a quick series of fast strikes, causing Eragon to stumble backwards after every few blows. He was working as hard as he could to block every strike in time. He had never faced anyone so fast in a duel before. The Mystery Master was a human. How he was so fast puzzled Eragon to the core. Eventually, one of Du Ebrithil's attacks were too fast for Eragon to cope with and the sword hit him on his right arm. He felt no pain, but heard a bone break. It would take a while for his arm to repair and come back to him. Du Ebrithil didn't stop his ruthless assault though. He continued until his entire left arm was hacked off and replaced.

'Eragon!' Oromis called. 'Switch to your left arm. It's faster and won't be as easy to get rid of again.

Eragon did as his master told him and switched to Oromis's hand. The sword felt lighter and he could swing it faster. Oromis had probably been a better swordsman and thus, allowing his new arm to spar like Oromis when he had been alive. With his skill increased, Eragon actually had a chance at landing blows of his own, although they were all parried. They continued like this for hours until nearly every part of his original body was bruised and had been replaced by Oromis. After his right arm had been hacked off by the blocked blade, he had switched back to it, and had even landed a few successful blows on The Mystery Master. The sun set after what had been an entire day of brutal sword training. Du Ebrithil sheathed his blade and patted Eragon on the back.

'Well done. It seems as though your master's body is faster and stronger than your own,' he said.

'I know. I'm not a full elf. Only a hybrid. The dragons did something to me at a celebration with the elves and now I'm more elf than human. He however, is a born elf.'

'Hmm… well, I managed to increase your strength and speed for today. Tomorrow we will look at different weapons you can use in combat and work on practicing with a target. I will also need to work on your precision. Probably make you stand under a waterfall and make you do the exercise the elves call the Rimgar. In fact, after seeing your skill with a blade today, I think we will be done much quicker than I originally prescribed.'

'Yes Ebrithil,' he answered promptly.

'Good.'

'For now, we will find a cave and spend the night under its shelter. As for Saphira, she can do what she wants. I will not be able to teach her anything. She is a dragon and I am a human. Not a dragon Rider.' He pulled his hood down on his face even lower and started walking towards a small mountain north of their current location. They walked silently in the darkness until they found a cave. Hero lit a fire while Du Ebrithil went hunting. Saphira went hunting as well, challenging him to catch the most prey. Eragon laid back on the solid ground and closed his eyes. He thought about Arya and the softness of her skin on his chest. He also thought about the gentleness of his bed in Du Weldenvarden. A sudden pang of homesickness roiled in his stomach. He heard Hero come and sit down next to him.

'You fight well,' he said. 'I haven't witnessed anyone who can stand in a fight against Ebrithil for as long as you did today. In fact, I think I saw a few of your blows make contact with his body. That's quite impressive to say the least.'

Eragon sat up before replying. 'I don't think he was giving it his all. Do you?'

'No. No he wasn't. The only time he actually fights hard is when he is fighting for his life.'

'How old are you Hero?' Eragon asked curiously.

'Seventeen. People may say that I am a man, but I don't even feel like an infant when compared to the man I travel with. He has hundreds of years of experience. I don't even have a quarter of that.'

Eragon chuckled. 'I'm quite sure you've been through more than what most youngsters your age have experienced.'

Suddenly, the whizzing sound of an arrow broke the crackling pattern of the fire and embedded itself in Eragon's right arm. Another rooted itself in Hero's forehead along with one in the boy's chest.

'Hero!' Eragon screamed.

 **This may be the last chapter for a week. I need to prepare my things for school and I may not have time to write another chapter. Even if I do, it won't be as long as long as they usually are.**

 **Anyway, leave a review and inform me of any grammar mistakes.**

 **Bye!**


	4. I think I should kill her

**Chapter 4**

 **I know it has been a long while since I last updated a chapter, but I couldn't help it. I now receive a crap tonne of homework every day, and I rushed all of the weekend homework just so I could write a new chapter today. My updates will become less regular over the next few months. I will be comfortably able to write new chapters after about eight months. Until then, I will only do one every one to three weeks. My GCSE's are coming. I don't know what the fifth year's exam is known as in other countries, but that's what they're called in the UK. Also, if my writing style changes over the next few months, please excuse me. I'll be having a lot of English lessons and learn a few new things. And without further ado, here is the next chapter.**

Du Ebrithil came running up the mountain, a crossbow in his right hand, a sword in his left. Saphira roared. Eragon hadn't seen who had fired the arrows, but they had come from another mountain. He looked at Hero. The boy had died within seconds. Fourteen arrows had hit him, and sixteen had bounced off Eragon's wards. Some of them had hit their mark and caused him to bleed, since he was already wearing Oromis's skin. He looked towards his old master. Oromis had run off towards the direction from which the arrows had been fired. A new shower of arrows came hurtling through the sky. His wards were weakening, and he was already bleeding. He closed his eyes, awaiting the impending pain that would soon follow. He heard a rustling sound and a slight breeze touched his face. He opened his eyes to see Saphira lying down in front of him. Arrows couldn't possibly pierce through the scales of a dragon.

'Eragon!' Du Ebrithil called out. 'Where are you? Where is Hero?'

'I'm behind Saphira. Hero is dead,' he replied.

Du Ebrithil clambered over Saphira and onto the safe side of her massive body.

 _Little one! You must think of something. Whoever is firing at us knows that they aren't doing any damage to you. Think quickly, or climb onto me,_ Saphira told him.

Du Ebrithil had cuts all over his hooded garments. Eragon decided to fly off on Saphira and confront the enemies on dragonback. It would make much lighter work of it, and nobody would sustain any injuries other than the attackers.

'Ebrithil. Climb onto Saphira with me. We can escape or take them on. Your choice.'

'Escape,' Du Ebrithil replied. 'It won't do us any good fighting an unknown opponent.'

Eragon stood up to mount his dragon but was broken off by her.

 _Brace yourselves!_ She called out abruptly. A moment of confusion was followed by an earsplittingly loud crash. A wall of heat pressed itself on his face while a loud thud resonated through the hollow of the cave. Saphira had been sent flying through the air by what had seemed to be a flaming catapult rock. The entrance of the cave was alight with flames, as was Saphira's right flank.

'Adurna!' he shouted, condensing the air around Saphira and the flames on the floor. Water fell around the desired areas and the fires were extinguished. The sun had begun its ascendance and was bathing the horizon parallel to them with the light of a new day. A new day of violence. Eragon strung his elven bow and aimed at whoever came into his field of view. He saw someone in clad black armour. He released the arrow and saw it sail through the sky, landing on its mark. The man in the armour was large enough to be a kull.

 _Eragon,_ Oromis called.

 _They're kull. I have reached the mountain and can see a large army of them behind this hill. These are just scouts who spotted you and are attacking. Why and how they got the catapults all the way up here is unknown to me as of yet._

 _Ebrithil? Didn't you say once that your shadow on this earth can make a difference, but use my strength?_ He inquired.

 _Yes I can. What are you suggesting?_

 _Break the tower support frame. It will render the catapults incapable of operating._

 _Are you sure? It will take a lot more of your strength to transfer it from this far._

 _Yes I'm sure._

A sudden decrease in his strength and a snapping sound symbolised the breaking wood of the catapults. Saphira slowly stood up behind him. Du Ebrithil was taking down one urgal after the other with two crossbows: one on each arm. He mounted Saphira and informed her of what was happening. He could feel the energy from inside the gem course through him without his will. He called Du Ebrithil and was joined in the saddle by his new master. With one arm encircling Eragon's waist, Du Ebrithil was firing crossbow bolts at the kull. Saphira leaped into the sky and flew over the mountain from which they were being attacked. True enough, there was an army of large black columns marching south. Towards Du Weldenvarden. Among them, Eragon could make out a ten foot kull near the rear of the army. The only urgal Eragon was aware of that could organise urgals this well was the only urgal king: Kulkarvek. The urgal was supposedly dead. How was he now leading an entire army towards the only direction he cared about?

'Saphira! Fly down lower and burn them as you go!' he yelled over the flapping sounds of the wind and her wings. She did so and was aimed at by ballistae. The arrows flew harmlessly past her large body, with courtesy to her agility. They were soon out of the range of the ballistae and bearing north. Du Ebrithil was wounded and was healing himself.

The scent of soup wafted through the air towards him. Straightening himself, he saw Du Ebrithil sitting around a fire, a pot hovering over the blazes, bubbling with water.

'Took you long enough to wake up,' he said.

Rubbing his eyes, Eragon grunted. He walked over to Saphira and pulled a flask out of her saddlebags. He unscrewed it and poured some water into his mouth. He gargled it and spat into a small hole in the ground. He looked around and found that they were in some plains a few leagues north of the mountains. He could just see the peaks of them over the endless plains. There was the occasional hill, but other than that and the wildlife, the landscape was empty. Du Ebrithil handed Eragon a bowl of the stew. He had a grieved aura about him and sat silently while they both ate.

'We must continue your training. I used some of the energy from your gem and healed you up. Most of your own body is back, but we can ignore the parts that are left. There were just mostly bruises: I had my sword blocked.'

Eragon simply nodded. He hadn't known Hero for long, but he had become close enough to him to mourn the boy. After they finished, Eragon washed it down with some water and they talked for a while. An hour later, they both took up their swords and stood facing each other in a fighting stance. They duelled for a few hours until noon. They stopped for a short lunch and continued. Through the whole day, Eragon had managed to retrain his original body. He was pushing his body beyond the limits. He could feel his body building more and more muscles as the hours went by. During their duels Du Ebrithil hadn't spoken a word except for when to tell him what he was doing wrong or how he could improve. No matter how hard he tried through, his mind continuously drifted away to Arya.

'Why are you so distracted?' he said between arrays of assaulting blows.

'Ebrithil… I'm not… distracted,' he replied while deflecting and parrying strike after strike.

'Yes you are.' Eragon was a little shocked. He was panting like a tired lion and his master wasn't even breathing a little bit harder than normal.

'Eragon,' he said between gritted teeth, 'I know when my students are thinking of something and roughly what they are thinking about. Firstly, I wanted to test how truthful you are. Secondly, I wanted to know what is bothering you.'

Du Ebrithil stopped duelling and leaned against his sword with the point of it digging into the ground.

Eragon sighed before answering him. 'I was thinking about my mate. Arya Dröttning. I haven't contacted her in any way. I even forgot to leave a scrying mirror for her,' Eragon admitted.

'Hmm… I guess I should go and kill her before I continue training with you.'

 **Another cliff hanger to end the chapter. I apologise for making this chapter a bit short. I had a lot of homework and it carried on into today. Anyway, leave a review and I will upload the next chapter next week.**


	5. You're a rider!

**Chapter 5**

 **Once again, I sincerely apologise for the long wait. I have no control over how quickly time passes. I also had a crap tonne of homework to deal with, along with my English and maths revision. Also, I please request that if any of you find any grammatical errors with my chapters, PM me, or leave it in a review. From now, I'll try to make up for the whole week of no chapters with a super long one at the end of every week. Although I am making a longer chapter, I feel a bit lazy, so it may not be the best standard I can deliver to you lot, but I'll try my best.**

'What!?' Eragon exclaimed in horror.

'Sorry? Did you say "what"?' Du Ebrithil asked him. 'From what I've heard, your mate defies description. In fact, the only time I saw her had caused me to behave unusually. Though I have seen her myself, travellers say that she is, if there is one, god's masterpiece. They say that her frame is enough to buy the mind of any mortal man and can make them go insane with crave and lust. They even suggest that she may be as beautiful as heaven itself. This is the forest elf you have mated. There is absolutely no reason as to why you shouldn't be distracted by her, but I'd rather have you thinking straight during the training sessions I have with you.' And with that, he drew his sword and walked off towards the south.

Fear and anger were creating a strange concoction in his stomach. The anger took over him first, making him charge towards his master with Brisingr raised over his head. Oromis just stood and watched him as he sprinted in the direction of Du Ebrithil. Du Ebrithil turned on his heel and parried the blow with a small knife. Upon parrying Eragon, he shoved him backwards. The rider stumbled and lost his footing, causing him to fall.

'Aha! So there is a reason to why you fight! Without a reason, you would never have come here. I struggled to find it at first, but it seems that now I have it!'

Eragon got to his feet, breathing heavily through his gritted teeth.

'You see, if a person doesn't have a resolve, he will surely fail at what he does, whereas, if he does, he will succeed.' He paused for a moment before signalling for him to head towards the mountains to the east of them.

Eragon, being too angry and relieved to say anything stayed quiet while they walked. Before the sun had set, they managed to arrive at the mountains. There was a tall cliff, with water running off the edge, making a lake at the base trailing off as a stream. There were a few caves, running down the waterfall and Eragon noticed that they were taking a path which was heading towards one of them. They reached it and Du Ebrithil walked inside. He sat on a rock and looked at Eragon. For a brief moment, he thought he had seen his master's face. It looked somewhat familiar. Like a long forgotten nightmare.

Pointing at the mouth of the cave, Du Ebrithil ordered him to stand under it bare chested. Eragon doubted the idea, but did so anyway. He relieved himself of his tunic and chest plate before walking over to the pounding mounds of water ricocheting off the rock. Eragon looked back at Saphira and Oromis, both of whom gave him an encouraging nod. He tensed himself and walked underneath the gravity of the falls. The torrent hit him hard on his head and shoulders. Even his wards weren't able to suppress the downfall for more than a few seconds. After they had faded away, he could feel the full force of it. He felt a conscience press against his mind and he dropped his barriers, trying his utmost hardest to stay upright while he communicated with his master.

 _Eragon, I want you to do the first stage of the Rimgar._

 _What!? I can barely stand Ebrithil!_ He complained.

Aggravation pulsed through his mental contact. _This is to test your precision. Within the next few months, I want you to be able to complete the fourth stage of the Rimgar without breaking a sweat, do you understand? Now start, before I think training you is a bad idea since you'll be so rude when I give you an order._

 **A/N I took a few hours break and now feel much better. I'm sorry about the lack of enthusiasm at the begging. I had just finished studying and my mind was bored and exhausted. From now, I hope things will be a lot livelier.**

 **BTW, this is a time gap because I don't necessarily know the Rimgar poses. You'll see by how long. The next fight was an inspiration I got when I watched the fight between Jackie Chan and Jet Lee in the forbidden kingdom. If any of you want to know how the fist fight section of the coming battle went, look for it on YouTube. You'll find it there.**

Emerging from the water, Eragon shuddered. The ice cold water had chilled his very bones. The cave had served as a perfect place to live and the perfect place to use as a training ground. A metallic whoosh awakened him from his freezing plight. His hearing, sight and smell had become sharper, even though the waterfall was gushing behind him. A flash of black metal reflecting sunlight from outside indicated that he should duck or dodge. Eragon leaned back into a sharp limbo. The shuriken harmlessly flew over him, before another, much larger blade hacked at his neck. Eragon used his right hand to balance himself before kicking his intruder on the shoulder with his left foot. Using the momentum, he stood up from his previous position. Eragon turned quickly away to grab his sword from the rock they had been using as a table. Grabbing Brisingr, he ducked as he heard another whoosh of air being sliced by a sword. He used his foot to kick the man behind him, before strafing another hit by rolling to his left. Still bare chested, Eragon put up his guard. The man lunged towards him with a jab. Eragon span and deflected the blow. He volleyed his counter with a strike of his own. The man jumped backwards, barely avoiding the tip of Brisingr. Eragon used the momentum once again to spin in a circle, swinging again in a sideward arc. He felt contact, but it was on his foot. The man had ducked under Brisingr and had stepped on his right foot. He then suddenly jumped up.

Before Eragon noticed what he was trying to do, Brisingr had been head butted by the man and had been sent flying towards the deeper end of the cave. The man was still low enough for Eragon to do some damage, so he kneed his opponent right in the face. The man had been sent flying six feet away, his sword knocked out of his hand in the process. The man lifted his legs, and used his hands to push himself up to standing position. Eragon attacked first. He tried to land a punch, but had been blocked. He then continued with an inhumanely swift volley of blows, both from fist and foot. A few of them made contact, while others had been parried or punched to the side. The man had eventually managed to turn the tables and was now on the offensive. Eragon blocked, parried and countered as many as he could, but he couldn't keep a streak going on for long enough to deal the damage he needed before his opponent was incapacitated. He needed his sword. He tried to look as if he was about to jump backwards, but instead, did a backflip, kicking his rival in the underside of his jaw. His feint had bought him enough time to cast a spell, calling his sword towards him. He readied his guard, hoping that the hooded man didn't have any more weapons. Obviously he was wrong. The man was now holding two katanas. Eragon knew from experience that the only way to disarm a dual wielded weapon was to make them join in an attempt of extra strength, then to knock them right out of person's hands.

Eragon waited for the man to strike first, so he could weave his arm behind one of the katanas. After that, he could pull on the man's arm, which would cause him to use his other hand in an attempt to free the one Eragon had. His plan worked out, and in a few moments, the katanas were sent sprawling over the ground several feet away. Eragon was about to finish the dual with a final fatal blow, but was stopped by an axe, the handle of which was barring his own blade. The man pushed his weapon forward, causing Eragon to stumble backwards. This battle would be longer than he had anticipated. The axe required the man to use both hands. It would allow occasional drops in the man's guard. A battle axe would be too hard for Eragon to block or parry. He decided that rolling and dodging would be his best option. However, he didn't need to. The man swung low, towards his knees, predicting that he would duck. The prediction hadn't worked because Eragon jumped, and punched him in the face. He hacked at one of the hands that were holding the battle axe and heard the resounding _clang_ resonate through the hollow of the cave. Eragon span around and brought his sword up to the neck of the man.

'It seems your training wasn't wasted. I spent four months teaching you. Now you can beat me, even when caught by surprise. I am proud of you Eragon. I wish for you to know that. I also wish for you to know that the only other person I have ever said that to is Oathbreaker. I am honoured to call you my student.'

'Thank you ebrithil. Your words hearten me,' Eragon replied.

Du Ebrithil then took a firm grasp of his shoulder and embraced him.

'I did tell you that today was your final lesson didn't I?' Du Ebrithil asked.

'Yes master.'

'Eragon… you have a good heart. It is full of wisdom and mercy. But you also contain power. You contain power but you are not proud of it. However, your training doesn't end there. We must now hunt down the one forest elf I wished never to see again. But before that, I have a few gifts for you. Winter is here, as you have experienced through the water. I have something for you that will keep you warm through the coldest of blizzards. It will also make fire become a part of you. You will not need to say fire in the ancient language for there to be fire. Instead, it will be there just by willing so.'

Du Ebrithil walked over to a large chest and opened it. He pulled out a dark blue hauberk, the same colour as Saphira's scales. He handed it to Eragon and he marvelled at how brilliant it looked. There was a glowing aura about it and he pulled it on over his neck.

'It is a hauberk made by the fire elves. The reason I always say forest elves is because there are more than one type of elf. There are many, but the forest elves are the greatest of the elf kind.'

'Thank you master,' Eragon said gratefully.

'I also have something which will allow you to walk on water and allow you to summon water just from your will.'

He walked over to the same chest and pulled out a pair of metal boots. These were as clear as glass and looked like running water. However, it was tougher and more flexible than any footwear he had ever seen.

'Made by the water elves. They gifted it to me after I saved them from an all-out war with the dwarves many years ago, after the capture of Ilirea.'

'I thank you again Ebrithil,' he repeated.

Eragon took off his current boots and replaced them with the ones Du Ebrithil had given him. They were cool inside, and his feet felt as if he was standing in a shallow stream. Normally he would have become annoyed, but the boots gave him a comforting feeling and felt relaxing.

'I also have a pair of gauntlets the dwarves gave me, from stopping the war of course. Have you heard of the dwarves' fists of iron?'

'Yes master,' he replied bluntly.

'Well, these gauntlets are specially made for humans and are much like the calluses you once told me you had. Use them for when you are disarmed.'

'Thank you Ebrithil,' he said again.

'I also have a **barbute** for you. I stole it from the forest elves which was why Gilderien the wise had attacked me. I didn't tell you the real reason why he had assaulted me, but now I have. It will let you see heat upon will, as with your boots and your hauberk, and when you are looking for something, it will be highlighted in gold for you in your vision. It will also allow you to see clearly in the darkest parts of the world.'

He then handed Eragon a leaf green helmet, which had textures on it which reminded him of Fírnen's scales. He put it on, and instantly, his field of view and his vision became enhanced threefold. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sudden change.

'And now, for the last two gifts. Leggings from the necromancer race which was eliminated by myself, along with hero. We managed to recover this from the wreckage of their homes. And finally, inside the hauberk, the Eldunarí of my dragon Whitestorm.'

'What!? You're a dragon rider?' Eragon blurted out in surprise.

Du Ebrithil didn't say anything, but instead took off the glove from his right hand and held it up so Eragon could see the gedwëy ignasia on his palm.

'Yes, however, that isn't the most surprising thing I am going to tell you today. I am also Brom's younger brother. And Brom wasn't all he seemed either. He and I are both the sons of a person we both hated, along with you.'

Eragon's head was spinning in circles from the new knowledge of his family and his mind became flabbergasted with what happened next.

Du Ebrithil pulled off his hood, giving Eragon a clear view of his face for the first time.

There, in front of him, stood a clear replica of Galbatorix.

 _ **Barbute is a type of helmet.**_

 **I wanted to carry on, but I thought that this cliff-hanger was too good an opportunity to miss. I for one enjoy writing this story, and I get more and more motivated to continue it when I receive nice PM's and reviews.**

 **I also acknowledged the fact that Saphira's presence wasn't mentioned even once in the whole chapter, but she isn't dead. She is just chilling in the corners of the scenes watching Eragon train.**

 **Anyway, leave a review, whether it's good or bad, anything is appreciated. If any of you particularly want something to happen in the plot, PM me, and I will see what I can do about it. Like for example, the idea of Du Ebrithil and Brom being brothers.**

 **Bye. :)**


	6. My father

**Chapter 6**

 **I am so sorry for the last two weeks. I had so many things to do and a crap tonne of homework and revision to get done that Fanfiction wasn't even on my mind. To make up for it, there will be an extra chapter after this one, including the usual weekend ones I do to amount to, I hope, three chapters this week including this one.**

 **BTW, a** _ **lot**_ **of people have been bugging me to do a lemon, but I was worried about my views, since I will need to change the rating to M. Therefore, I will be doing lemons later on in the story, but will keep them separate, so as to retain the T rating I currently have.**

 **A response to the review I got from Andrew Caddell:** I know. I took it into account, but hoped that nobody would notice. Seems you already have. ;)

 **I know the last cliff hanger was quite annoying, but here's the next chapter.**

'He used to show me so much love. Not as a son. As a weapon. He made me and Brom both spectacular swordsmen.'

Du Ebrithil sighed before continuing. 'Brom was lucky enough to inherit our mother's facial features. I however… was not so lucky. Brom is older than me, and was given birth to willingly. Once again, I wasn't as fortunate. Once our mother realised the evil that lurked in Galbatorix, she tried to flee this was before he had attacked the riders of Doru Araeba. Galbatorix caught her and made me through incessant rape. I was born and my mother lost her life in the process. The reason I always wear a hood is because of my face. The face that injects fear into people. My hood is also fear wreaking, but it is nothing when compared to how much fear Galbatorix put into the minds of nigh on every human mind on the face of the earth.'

Eragon felt dizzy. Not only was Du Ebrithil his uncle, but Galbatorix his grandfather. The thought of it wanted to make him puke in disgust. What wrong had Brom done to deserve such a filthy parent?

'As for my dragon. Whitestorm was a majestic dragon with wonderful scales as brilliant as a fountain of milk. He was killed by Galbatorix when Brom and I had tried to escape after we saw the madness that had taken over him after his dragon had died. He casted a spell while we were running and my dragon leaped in front of him. The spell had been lethal, and had killed him in one blast of energy. Saphira had then come down and taken us on dragon back. We then went to Oromis and told him that there would soon be a problem if Galbatorix wasn't stopped soon. He told us that he had his own suspicions on the matter himself. You know of everything that took place after that.'

Saphira could feel the unease radiating through him. She rubbed her muzzle against his left arm soothingly.

 _Eragon… I know this is a lot to take in, but we need to get a move on. If we are to defeat Oathbreaker, we cannot afford to waste any time,_ she told him calmly.

 _Yes I know… it's just that this took me by surprise that's all._

'Master, I understand the weight of everything you have told me, but we need to mobilise. Oathbreaker is bringing his army to Alagaësia in thirteen months and you have just told me that there is more to my training.'

'Yes. I did say so. We will be heading to the east. Where the Shadow Mountains lay giving cover to the city of amethyst and sapphire walls. The City of the Sky. There is the one elf who can teach you more than Oromis or Gilderien can ever teach you. Albeit I have never been there myself, some people claim that diamonds hang from the sky, and that rain falls on an unseen surface which slides over towards the river which is located on the west of the city. The earth there is somehow moist and fruitful, despite the absence of rain on the land. That is where we are headed. Sapphire City. We will go there on dragon-back and walk the last league.'

And with that, he revealed a translucent saddle for Saphira. He strapped it onto her and mounted her. Eragon picked up the few belongings of his that were sprawled across the ground and jumped onto Saphira one seat in front of him. The sun rose a few minutes after they left the waterfall cave.

They flew for a good few hours before a faint glint appeared on the horizon, hinting at a gem in the distance.

Saphira began to descend, probably on order of Du Ebrithil, and waited for Eragon to get off with his uncle.

'We will walk from here. The elf we are to train with will not be pleased to find out that a dragon is heading head first towards the city. They have not encountered many dragons from what I hear. And she is not one to mess around with.'

'She?' Eragon whispered to himself. Usually the most powerful beings in Alagaësia were males. Whether dwarf, elf, human, urgal, dragon, fanghur or nidhwal. All of the most powerful beings among them were always males. Du Ebrithil had only mentioned being afraid of the power of Gilderien. Only once had he mentioned anything about the elf they were going to see. He had never made it clear whether or not it was going to be a male elf or female.

A sudden pang of guilt hit Eragon harder than anything he had ever experienced. During the last year that he had spent training the techniques of a sword, he had not once even tried to contact his beloved Arya. He hadn't even told her how to contact him, and now he felt the gravity of his carelessness. He couldn't even remember whether or not she had a mirror in her room. In fact, he couldn't remember what she looked like. The thought of it made him sick, but Eragon was brought back to his senses by Oromis.

He turned to Du Ebrithil and asked for permission to speak to Saphira alone. His appeal was granted, and Eragon touched his dragon's mind with his.

 _Saphira?_

 _Yes little one?_

 _Could you do me a favour? One that would probably make you upset?_

 _I will think about it. First tell me what you want me to do._

 _Give me your Eldunarí and go back to Du Weldenvarden. Make sure Arya and Fírnen are ok and stay there with them. If you are concerned about my safety, do not be. I have trained for long enough to protect myself from any trouble, and I also have Du Ebrithil with me. If you are worried about transport do not be. I will have your Eldunarí and will contact you if I need you to take me home or somewhere else. Please do not turn me down._

Saphira remained silent for a while. _I will be able to contact you whenever and wherever you go, so long as you have my Eldunarí?_

 _Yes. But please do not distract me during training sessions. Other than those times, I will always be there for you._

 _I have kept my Eldunarí for so long that it seems quite wrong to give it up._ She made a grunting noise, then a large blue stone was visible in the back of her throat. It came out in a frenzy of saliva and stomach acids. Eragon summoned water to clean it, and held it out in front of him. He put it in a small compartment in his chest plate which made it touch his skin, so energy would be poured in and out of it automatically, similar to the gem from Oromis's sword.

After that, Saphira leaped into the air and began to flap towards Du Weldenvarden.

Du Ebrithil was running towards him screaming. 'Hey! Hey! Where's she going? She can't leave!'

'Yes she can. I may be your student and bound by respect to you, but she isn't. She is a dragon with a free heart and has decided to return to the elves. I, along with your help, am more than capable of taking care of myself.'

'No you're not!' his teacher yelled. 'You're no more powerful to her than a sheep is to you! She has the power and capability to trample on you by accident. Even Saphira wouldn't be able to keep you safe if she decided you were unfriendly, but she would be able to give you more time. With those few extra seconds, you could have survived, but now you have sent her away.'

Eragon growled. 'Even if I do survive I'll probably be dead anyway.'

Eragon then started sprinting off in the direction of the sapphire city.

On the way there, Eragon asked several times on how to handle the elf, but Du Ebrithil didn't tell him anything, saying that he may turn away if he told Eragon everything he knew about her.

When there was only a mile left to the great city, it started raining. Splashing through the puddles, they soon arrived at a large river. Eragon used his boots from the water elves to walk over the water, carrying Du Ebrithil on his back. Oromis simply levitated and glided across the gushing current. Once they were on the other side, they noticed something extraordinary. The rain had stopped. The looked up and could see the water running on nothing. It fell from its suspended state a few feet into the river's borders. It was winter, and the sun had already set, as the three of them turned towards the city.

In front of them was a dark blue wall, twenty feet high, with a large archway in the centre. There were several intricately designed mosaics lined across the top and bottom lines of the amethyst slabs lining the sapphires. Under the archway was a huge door, large enough to fit five dragons the size of Saphira. The stairs were made of marble and had blue squares embedded in them in a cross mesh system of arrayed lines. There were approximately fifteen shallow steps, all encircling each other creating a grand semi-circle around the doorway.

The doors of the gates were open and a woman around the age of twenty human years was standing in the clearing of the stairs with approximately fifty attendants on each of her sides. There were no men from what he could see, which made Eragon start to worry that he and Du Ebrithil would be welcome in the city walls.

She was approximately five and a half feet tall. She had a cerulean, somewhat see-through silk dressing over her, embroidered with gold over the edges and tinged with a bright yellow near the bottom, near her feet. It was longer than her and was being held up by two attendants. Around her breasts and the upper part of arms, the silk was a clear sky blue. Around her elbows, her sleeves became a darker shade and around her hands it was a navy blue near the base. The ends of the sleeves were draped in gold. There was an emerald clasp holding the two sides of the silk.

Underneath her first layer she had a somewhat thicker layer of silk, but all of it was light blue. Around her waist and above, it was embroidered with gold. She had long emerald earrings which dangled down to her shoulders. Her clothing didn't have anything to differentiate the difference between each leg. There was a line running down the lower section of her dress, showing one of her legs whenever she took a step forward.

She had a pale brown face with long, thin chestnut brown hair reaching down to her rear end. Her eyes were lined harshly and were a dark brown. Her eyebrows were thin. There was a faint smile imprinted across her face and her gait was a seductive one.

Two of her attendants from behind held her silk dressing up high as she started walking towards them.

Eragon was spellbound by her beauty and was shocked when Oromis suddenly started speaking to him.

'Eragon…' he called out nervously.

 _Yes ebrithil?_ He replied with his mind.

'If that's who I think it is then you are in a lot of danger. Quickly run while you can. Run!' he screamed. Eragon immediately turned and fled towards the river at a full sprint. He was a few feet from the river when he felt a constricting force weave around him. He heard footsteps behind him and suddenly his vision turned to that of Oromis'. The woman was walking towards him from behind and had one arm held up in his direction. Du Ebrithil wasn't being constricted so, but he had his gaze fixed on the ground. The woman was walking slowly towards him and when she was looking at the side of Eragon's face, his vision returned to him. He could not turn his head but he could see from the corner of his eye that she was examining him. She circled him, all the while looking at his build and what he looked like. After she completed one circuit around him, she took his left palm and stared at the gedwëy ignasia. She dropped his hand and then a frown crossed her brow.

'Where is your dragon?' she asked. Her voice was an exact replica of Arya's.

He found that he could move his lips and began to speak.

'One league from here she left to return to the elves. I have come here to train in the arts of gramarye. I do not know who with, but my teacher knows. He will tell you why I am here and for who. If you want to know anything about me, you can ask me now, but please don't hurt me,' he begged.

'Hmm,' she thought for a moment. 'Why did you run?' she asked. The familiarity of her voice stinging him like needles.

'My master told me to. My old master. I have the gem from his sword embedded in my body which contains his soul and allows him to communicate with me from the void.' Eragon was being open because of fear. He could not move at all, and was sure that she was the one maintaining the spell. Judging from the way she was keeping him totally contained in one spot without breaking a sweat made him fear how much worse she may have the capability of doing to him. Was she the one Du Ebrithil wanted him to learn from?

'Who is he?' she continued her interrogatory conversation. There was a newfound curiosity in her voice.

'An elf,' he replied.

'What was his name? I only know of one elf who could have known about the gem system of riders.'

'His name was Oromis. Rider of Glaedr. The last of the elves to survive the fall of the riders.'

The name seemed to have hit a chord, as she recoiled from it.

Oromis seemed overwhelmed about something, but he was not even looking at the two of them talk.

The woman started sobbing before she made a statement that hung in the air for a good few moments.

'He was my father,' she whispered.

 **I don't have time to proof read this chapter, so I apologise in advance if anything is wrong or doesn't make sense. Anyway, leave a review, and PM me if you have any questions. BTW, the reason I used so much detail for the description was because all the other OC's I have introduced, had a link to what they looked like in my mind. This OC was totally made up and so I needed to give a decent description for her. There will hopefully be another chapter the night after tomorrow night, but don't hold me to it.**


	7. Brewing war

**Chapter 7**

 **I know I said there would be an extra chapter, but I couldn't keep to it. My asthma has been playing up recently so I found it kind of hard to concentrate. This chapter has actually been written over a course of three days, explaining why it is so long. I am kind of sorry if the part with the lightning is cheesy. I was sleepy at that time, so I couldn't care less about repetition, or I didn't care to try and fix it. It was just too long.**

 **Who cares about my life story, right? Here's the seventh chapter!**

A wave of anguish rolled over his mind, overtaking his senses and driving him to madness. The level of distress was unbelievable, but he didn't know why. The only distress he should be feeling was that this woman would either kill him, or ask him more questions. It seemed as though many other people in the vicinity could feel the pain, as they were clutching their heads in an agonising way. His vision suddenly blurred and he felt nauseated. What was happening to him? Eragon tried to fight back the waves of sorrow, but the emotion was powerful enough to engulf him and rip his mind apart. A roar filled every crevice in his mind as he exhausted himself to keep his sanity. Even Du Ebrithil was struggling to keep the pain at bay. The only person who didn't seem to be harmed in any way by this sudden calamity was the woman who had him immobilised.

 _Is she doing this?_ He thought to himself. If she was, he had all the more reason to fear her. A voice suddenly began resonating in his mind.

 _Eragon…_ the tone was cracked and sounded like it had suffered the worst torments of hell. A slab of recognition hit him on the head.

 _Saphira! Are you ok?_ Queasiness erupted within him as he thought about what could have happened to her.

 _I am but… Du Weldenvarden is gone. F-_

 _Gone!?_ Shock and dizziness took over his senses. What did she mean?

 _The entire forest is on fire… and Fírnen is dead._ The last words came out as more of a whisper in his conscience.

Fírnen was dead. Did that mean that Arya had died too? Brom had once told him that a dragon would give their life to save its rider. Either Fírnen had died, giving time for Arya to run away, or Arya had died after her dragon. Brom had also told him that riders would often go insane at seeing his or her dragon die, and would eventually kill themselves. That could have been a possibility with Arya, but Eragon knew her better than to judge her out to be someone so weak minded. Arya was three hundred years old and had enough experience to know how her death could be a factor to other things going wrong.

Regardless of these things, Eragon needed to get back. The melancholic emotions of his dragon was still present, so Eragon had no choice than to stop the pain by suppressing the Eldunarí inside something made of shadowstone. During his time with Du Ebrithil, he had learned that shadowsteel was the only solid material that could totally keep out mental rays. His necromancer leggings were made of shadowsteel but he wouldn't be able to reach it while still immobilised. He would have to distract the woman to get a chance at putting the Eldunarí inside his pocket.

Without warning Eragon cast a spell. 'Kverkva!'

A bolt of lightning from his hand hit the woman straight in the chest. She recoiled, but only a little. The distraction was enough for him. He fell to ground, able to move his limbs, and grabbed the Eldunarí from his chest plate. His head throbbed from the amount of mental pressure it was going through, but he had to put it away quickly. The woman would soon immobilise him again. He shoved the Eldunarí into the pocket of his leggings before he looked back up at the scenery around him. The sun had completely set, but his eyes beheld a beautiful sight. From behind the gates of the city, a large gem the size of Saphira levitated in the sky, giving off a brilliant white light, illuminating the darkness around them. It seemed this was the diamond Du Ebrithil had spoken about.

 _Some people claim that diamonds hang from the sky…_

He was awe struck by the prospect of a diamond hanging from the sky on its own accord. As he stared at the light, he noticed clouds starting to swirl around in the sky. He focused on them more and saw that they were a kind of dark blue colour. The only other time he had seen clouds like this had been when he was fighting Oathbreaker. Alarm shot through him as he jumped to the left, where nobody was standing. A bolt of lightning much bigger than his struck the ground where he had just been standing.

' _That_ is what a bolt of thunder looks like,' the woman snarled art him. She had an expression that spelt anger. 'You _dare_ use magic against me?'

She waved her hand at him and another bolt of lightning came crashing down from the sky. Eragon dodged, but the bolt caught the edge of his wards and cut them apart like a hot knife through butter.

'I _am_ magic,' she whispered menacingly before waving at him again.

Eragon was panting heavily. The dodging itself wasn't a problem, but the shock of knowing how close he was to death certainly was.

Du Ebrithil ran to her and started saying something which was inaudible, due to another strike landing next to him. Du Ebrithil was on his knees as the woman kicked him in the leg, making his legs buckle. She walked past him without a second note and continued towards Eragon. Out of breath, Eragon waited for another moment for the next discharge of electricity to come down. How long would he carry on like this? He needed to get to Du Weldenvarden. He had initially struck her forehead because he needed to remove Saphira's Eldunarí. Now, she seemed to want his blood.

He watched her wave her hand at him again, and braced himself. The next fulmination cracked all the drums in his ears for the fourth time. He kept his ground. He felt an excruciating pain crack his skull open, and felt a white hot explosion go off in front of him. His body had been sent flying backwards, near the river. He felt a prickling sensation fill up within him, and felt his body re-grow.

He heard footsteps approach him from the gates. He tried to move, but his limbs were still not fully intact. Eragon waited for his body to take Oromis's form. He opened his eyes, lifted his head and then shook it. He slowly sat up and looked around. This was the first time he was totally seeing the world through his old master's eyes. He looked at the woman and saw a horrified expression on her face. She had her palms covering her mouth, and her eyes were wide in shock.

He heard Oromis say something under his breath and Eragon suddenly left his body.

 _He was in Du Weldenvarden. A small elf child stood weeping in front of him. From Ellesméra came the sounds of the forsworn and the other riders. He was hiding in a cave with his great golden dragon._

' _Please don't send me away faðir_ (father)' _the girl bawled._

' _Sh, sh, it's ok, it's ok. I only want you to be safe. You saw what happened to your mother with your own eyes. How can I let that happen to you as well? Hmm? Please tell me. I have already lost the dearest thing to my soul, and I regret it greatly. I do not want to lose everything else worth living for. If I know you are alive, then I will always have reason to end this war, and make things right, knowing that you will benefit from it. Now if you die… what is left for me?'_

 _The girl burst into tears again, and violently started shaking her father's neck._

' _Why must people die? Why can we not live in peace? Why must you and I be separated?' the girl asked through her passionate voice._

 _He put his arms around her comfortingly._

' _Please Dröttningu. Do not cry. I will cast a spell on you, which will allow you to, over time, become stronger than any being in Alagaësia. You will be untouchable in your strength. Along with this one, I will make it so that you will not be able to go near any men. From experience I know that they are the most evil of creatures in Alagaësia. Never allow one to go near you. Especially one associated with Galbatorix, or anyone like him. I will also cast a spell on you which will not allow you to be anywhere within Alagaësia. This will mean that you will be far away from the war. Unless you can find your true name, you will not be able to see me until the war is ov-'_

 _He was stopped by a hard punch on his jaw._

' _Don not send me away faðir! Please! I am begging you! Please!'_

 _Oromis began casting the spells under his breath, as his daughter continuously sobbed and pleaded him not to do so._

 _Upon completion, Du Dröttningu stood up and started walking away. She was sobbing with every step._

 _Oromis felt a tear trace a line down his cheek, and allowed it to trek across his face._

' _I love you Dautr (daughter). I could never have kept you safe if you stayed,' he called to her before turning back to his dragon. He would hide out until either the rider's won, or a rider came to him to train in the arts of gramarye and combat. Both his mate, and his sister, Dellanir Drottning, had died. Apart from Du Dröttningu, the only two elves he would give his life to save. He didn't want her to die along with them._

Eragon's vision flashed and his eyesight returned to him. He looked at the woman who he now knew to be called _Du Dröttningu._ The princess. She knelt down next to him. Eragon hadn't noticed, but a tear was on his face after seeing the sacrifice Oromis had made to keep his daughter safe.

Du Dröttningu spoke first. 'Faðir?'

Eragon looked at her in the eyes. 'No. Not father. I am Eragon, his student. I can communicate with him, but he is dead. The gem from his sword is inside me, which means he lives on as long as I do.'

'How did you receive it?' she asked. A hint of suspicion lingered in her voice.

Eragon then explained how he met Oathbreaker, and how he had managed to wound him with a lightning bolt similar to the one she had used on him, and all the incidents up to what had taken place before they left. He also explained why he had attacked her, and how he needed to get back to Du Weldenvarden.

'No. You will not go back to the forest,' Du Ebrithil suddenly spoke up. 'You need to learn how to defeat him before you try to return. What if you go back, and you see that he is there waiting to kill you?'

Eragon growled. 'I couldn't care less! My mate may be injured, and all you care about is how you will get him killed!'

'Yes well you won't be of much use to her dead will you? You need to stay alive for you to be of much use to anyone. In fact, Du Dröttningu can probably go there and kill him herself,' he retorted.

Eragon was about to respond rudely but was stopped by her.

'What did you say his name was?' she asked Eragon.

'Oathbreaker,' he replied.

'No, his other name,' she said, correcting her request.

'Eragon.'

'Then there will be a problem. You said that you saw the time when I had to leave my father, right? You did hear that he said I would continue to grow in strength until I am the most powerful being Alagaësia. The problem is, I still haven't reached my peak of growing. I still have several millennia left until I am the most powerful being in Alagaësia and its neighbouring lands to the north and across the seas. Unfortunately, Oathbreaker is one of the few beings whose power still encompasses mine. I… I have a confession to make.'

'What is it?' Du Ebrithil asked.

'I… I taught him,' she admitted.

'You what!?' Eragon screamed. 'This is perfect! Absolutely perfect! He had the two best teachers in or around Alagaësia, and now he's wreaking havoc across the world! How much better could my life have got? I was up against him? When I am only Eragon Shadeslayer? I am not named Lordslayer! If I was, his head would have been a certificate for that title.'

'How did you find him?' Du Ebrithil inquired.

'He was bleeding outside a tavern. I found him on the ground, near his last breath, when I decided to save him. I ignored the spell my father had put on me which made me stay away from a man, and healed him. I knew my true name, so I removed that particular spell from my soul, and trained him like a student. Along with him, I trained an elf who goes by the name of Gilderien. He was the protector of Ellesméra, and I enhanced his skill as much as I could. Eragon… I will help you, but know this. War is brewing, and there will be a lot of death. The last war you participated in, was between the empire and the Varden. This will include other lands into the skirmish. Remember this, a lot of blood will be on your hands if you survive through this. Not only those of your enemies, but those of your allies as well. You will not kill them, but you will be the one responsible for their demise. You will have a lot of enemies, but you will also make a lot of friends. Your opponent's enemies are your friends, which makes me your loyal ally. And if I am the enemy of someone, then he certainly has a lot more. I have an army at my command, and it is at your disposal, even as I teach you. Whether you want them to send a message, or raid a fort, they are yours.'

Du Ebrithil spoke next. 'I also give you my hand. I do not have soldiers of my own, but I am friends with many races who will aid you in great numbers. I will leave for them tomorrow to see if we can make a pact.'

Eragon felt heartened at hearing that, not only would he be receiving lessons from Du Dröttningu and Du Ebrithil, but they would supply him with armies. 'I thank you both.'

Du Dröttningu then stood up and entered the gates of the city. Eragon and Du Ebrithil stayed where they were for a few more minutes. The sun rose, and Du Ebrithil stood up.

'The day has begun, and I intend to keep to my word. I will leave for the water elves today, to win their allegiance. After them, I will visit many other old friends who may be willing to help you out. You were a good student Eragon. I bid you farewell.'

He embraced his teacher before watching him sprint off towards the river and swim through it.


	8. Where battle awaits

**Chapter 8**

 **An extra chapter for the end of the week. I won't be updating again for another 6 days, so it though 'why not?' Because I finished the extra revision I normally do, I decided to do another chapter since I don't really have anything to go over which I don't know. This chapter will probably be shorter than usual: most probably less than 2 thousand words.**

'Where'd he go?' she asked him. She was still wearing her blue silk, but had a bow, a sword, and a belt of weapons around her slim frame.

'He went to make a few alliances. He didn't mention when he would return, but made it seem clear that he would, in time, come back,' he replied.

'Hmm… it would have been good to have him, but I guess we all have things to do. Eragon, I'm not sure about my sources, but I don't think there are more than fifty forest elves left in Du Weldenvarden,' she informed him gently.

' _What_? Fifty! Was it Oathbreaker?' he asked urgently.

'No. This attack was not hosted by Oathbreaker. It was in fact charged by King Kulkarvek. He was supposedly dead, but it seems he is in fact alive. Do you remember that urgal army you told me about?' she asked.

'Yes.'

'I have a feeling that very army was the one that had attacked Du Weldenvarden. I have vowed to train you, but we do not have time. We will return to Ellesméra; on the way, and once we are there, I will teach you everything I know. I will increase your skill with a blade, but it will take several days. I will do this before we leave,' she told him.

'But we need to get going as soon as possible,' Eragon protested.

Du Dröttningu didn't seem to care, and the last thing he saw was her palm pass over his eyes.

Eragon awoke and shivered. He was naked on a large bed. His clothes were on a chair at the side of the room. There were sheets which were in an untidy bundle near the base of the bed. He looked around the room he was in. It was a bland place with only a window. Outside, he could see a blanket of snow on the invisible barrier made to keep the rain from landing in the city. He quickly stood up, but stumbled and fell to the floor. What had she done to him? He felt awkward and unstable. He attempted to stand up again. He managed to keep his balance this time, but felt extremely groggy. He threw up on the floor, and wiped his lips. What was wrong with him? He got dressed painstakingly slowly, and donned his armour. Upon wearing his helmet, he felt much better, although he still felt as though he was drunk. He trudged over to the other corner of the room, and equipped Brisingr, a belt the same material and style as, but not colour of Du Dröttningu's belt. It contained throwing knives, shurikens, and two sheathes for a dual wield katana. Du Ebrithil had shown him how to use them on his second week. He had seen how effective two swords were when he had seen Murtagh's memory of when he and Rya had fought outside Daret. Eragon lumbered over to the door and found it locked. He decided that there must be a good reason as to why, so he decided to try and get used to walking, running and jumping.

After five minutes, he had managed to get control over his motions. He had noticed that he was faster, stronger, and was reacting faster than usual. His senses remained undiminished, but his physical features had been enhanced. Eragon got bored, and walked over to the window in his room. There was no latch, or way to open it so he elbowed the glass: shattering it, and jumped out. His room was located on the third floor of a palace-like structure. He was in an alleyway, and decided to walk towards the main street.

Once he was in the open, he did not find anyone. The entire city was empty. Eragon tried to look through the windows of some of the buildings, but no one was there to be seen.

 _Eragon?_

Recognising the voice immediately, he responded accordingly.

 _Yes ebrithil?_

 _Go to the main gate of the city. It is to your left. My daughter will soon cut off the energy keeping elements from the sky from touching the ground, meaning that the snow will fall as soon as you are out of the city._

Eragon immediately left for the city gates. It was open, and there was a sea of blue stretching as far as he could see. Once he was close enough, Eragon saw what the blue colours were. It was an entire army of elves, lined up in their columns, prepared for a march. He stepped outside the city walls, and jumped in surprise when the doors closed behind him. He hadn't yet seen Du Dröttningu, so he took the time to contact Saphira through her Eldunarí. He took out the blue stone from his pocket, and reached his mind out towards it. The anguish that had once prevailed within the Eldunarí was now replaced with anger. His vision flashed, and Eragon suddenly found himself floating in the sky next to sunrise and sunset.

 _A dead ugly-face-urgal hung between her claws. Twenty more nasty-breath-maggot-kull were bathed in blue-fire-death. Rider-student-Matthias fought on the dust-dirt-ground next to rider-student-Maximus._

His vision returned to him again, just before another urgal was ripped apart within her jaws. The first thing that he saw was Du Dröttningu. She had a beautiful appearance usually, but when she wore weapons, she looked more like a warlord than anything else. She had an axe strapped to her back, two swords, an elven bow and knuckle-dusters on her hands.

'Are you ready Eragon?' she asked him.

'For what? Are we leaving with all of them?' he asked.

'Yes. From what we know, the urgals are currently attacking Ilirea. The riders that came with you are currently engaged in battle to retain their rule over the city. They are losing, even with the aid of Saphira and the forty other riders.' She then turned to the army of elves and addressed them.

'Today, we march forth to Alagaësia!' her voice was magnified by magic. 'The elves of the forest are dead. There are only a few of them left. We are marching to aid the rest of the races within Alagaësia to prevent them from being endangered. Now, I have a question for you all. Have I ever mistreated you?'

The army replied in the negative in unison.

'Do you trust me to lead you into battle? I have been ruling over you for three centuries after I was adopted by the king of this city. When he died, I took over the rule. During this time, have I ever broken any of your trust?'

The army repeated their earlier response.

'Then march forth towards the south, where the battle awaits.'


	9. Ilirea

**Chapter 9**

 **An extra chapter to make it clear that I managed to finish all of my neck deep revision.**

 **The beginning of this chapter may seem a little lazy and incomplete, but I can assure all of you that it is going to get better.**

 _Saphira! We're here!_

A roar met his ears. A sound he was familiar with enough to know it was one of great happiness.

 _I am in the town hall. We were pushed back. How far are you from the city? There doesn't seem to be any sort of commotion from outside._

Eragon looked over at the Ramr River. There, just beyond the next hill, lay Ilirea. He hadn't been to the city ever since his leaving of Alagaësia. He set off at a sprint, leaving the rest of the army behind him. From a birds eye view, he guessed, he looked like a random soldier breaking out of the ranks on his own. As he neared the top of the hill, a dreadful sight followed the once beautiful walls of Ilirea. Standing all around the walls of Ilirea were ranks upon ranks of urgals in clad black armour. He looked back at the elves who were unknowingly walking straight into the plains.

He was too late to try and stop them. A line of elves walked over the cover of the hills. He looked back at the urgals a few of whom managed to see them. The blue armour of the elves contrasting against the green of the grass was too high to go unnoticed.

Eragon drew his bow, as did the other elves upon hearing the war horn.

 _What were you saying about no commotion? Why didn't you tell me that they were camped all around the city?_ He asked Saphira in a scorn.

He took aim at a stupid urgal that was running towards them. After another second, it became a pincushion. Every elf in the front line had fired at him, and was preparing for anymore that would come at them. The elves slowly advanced further, their bows still aiming at the urgals.

Eragon waited for most of the army to come beyond the hill. He released his arrow at the one in his sights. He received a solid volley of arrows after his own.

The elves soon ran out of arrows, but there was still a steady wall of urgals slowly marching towards them. Were they being supplied with more every minute? If they were, how would they ever kill them all?

'Attack them with your swords!' he heard Du Dröttningu shout to her soldiers.

Each one of them unsheathed their swords. The urgals had the lower ground, so the elves were at a disadvantage. The urgals were organised even better than the humans were when they had laid siege to Ilirea during the time of Galbatorix.

Eragon prepared to jump straight into the urgals and fight them from within, however, the air rippled with a shockwave as the urgals were suddenly sent flying backwards: each one of them flying a minimum distance of about thirty feet.

Fresh wave of urgals came and was again wiped away by the shockwave. The same happened with the third and the fourth, but o the fifth, they all simply dropped dead while running.

Eragon had a feeling Du Dröttningu was the one to make the shockwaves, but he wasn't sure. If she was able to produce that but multiple ties over, they would be inside the gates of the city in literally only a few minutes. The elves were advancing towards the northern gate of the city rapidly, and yet not a drop of blood from any elf. Eragon had not touched a single enemy with a sword, yet Du Dröttningu was amounting to nearly a thousand kills.

As they approached the gates, the elves in the rear brought the ballistae and catapults to the front. This also reminded Eragon of their last encounter in the city.

After a few minutes on the siege engines, Du Dröttningu blasted the gate down. The army flooded in, slaying the urgals as they went. There weren't many so they were only held off for a few moments. Eragon only slew one foe during the entire raid. He ran towards the palace and slammed his palm on the door.

'It's e Eragon!' he bellowed. 'Open the door! The urgals are gone! Where is Saphira? Saphira! Saphira!'

The door opened a marginal amount and he saw a dark green eye peep through the gap.

'Eragon?' a voice called. A sudden rush of memories flooded through his mind, overtaking all reason. He had thought his mate was dead when she was in fact alive. From when they had left the ruins of Du Weldenvarden, he had only found corpses lying around. He hadn't thought it possible for her to have survived among the fifty or less forest elves.

'Arya,' he whispered, failing to contain the longing that was inside him. Her eye was empty of emotion: as if her soul had been ripped out of it, and that all there was left of it was using her body.

The door opened and Eragon saw how many people there were left inside Ilirea. Only the forest elves and four humans. All of his Dragon Riders were still there, but most of them were injured or dead.

'Eragon,' she whispered before embracing him with a tight grip.

Rya walked out of the palace next. Her face was bloodied and she was limping on her right leg. The thing that hurt Eragon the most was that her entire left arm was missing.

'Uncle, this isn't the time for greetings and affection. That was just a scout team. I saw two of them heading to Dras Leona. These urgals want the entire Alagaësia to their selves.'

' _That was just a scout team_?' he exclaimed in surprise. That was larger than the entire of Galbatorix's army, which had been totally wiped out in a few moments. If it was only a scout team, how large was the army itself?

Du Dröttningu suddenly ran past him and Arya towards Rya.

'Oh, you poor thing!' she exclaimed sympathetically. 'You're arm has been totally blown off! Here, let me get that for,' she exclaimed. A few moments later, her arm was replaced with a new one, exactly the same as the first.

Moonstone slowly walked up behind her. Eragon hadn't seen him for over a year now, and was suddenly surprised to find him so large. The poor white dragon had missing scales all over his flank and was bleeding profusely from a large gash in his snout. It looked like they had just managed to get to the throne room in time to keep themselves safe for a short while.

'Dröttningu! Large mass of urgals approaching from the south west! Marching slowly!' one of the elves cried from on top of the fortifications.

 **A/N yeah sorry about that. It was kinda bad, but now things will get better.**

 **P.S. These authors' notes have been written after the chapter was completed.**

Du Dröttningu nodded her head to show her understanding. She then looked back at the Riders and the few humans that were left. She closed her eyes and started whispering something. A green light filled the room and every wound and bruise on anyone was cleared.

'Now, there is an army approaching. It is each of your personal decisions whether or not to stay. If you want to participate in the defence of Ilirea, ready yourselves. I understand that you are Riders, but none of you are to mount your dragons under any circumstances. You will be shot down by their archers within seconds. Do you all understand me?' She was met with a series of affirmative nods.

'Good. Now, is there anyone of you from this small gathering that would like to leave this room and city for their own safety, and leave the rest of us to die or be victorious while you watch?'

She was answered by an eerie silence.

'Perfect! You, and you, you're twins aren't you?' she said pointing at Maximus and Matthias.

'Yes,' Maximus replied.

'I want you at the front gates. I will repair them and fortify them as best I can, but I need you and your dragons to shift as many things as you can over there to create a barricade. Go, quickly. They're approaching fast. I will come and join you in a moment,' she said, ushering the both of them away.

She then gave orders to everyone else in the room in small groups.

By the time Eragon had been sent away, only Arya was left, who had been assigned to him.

 _At east I'll know if she's safe_ , he thought.

Elven archers were already lined up on the walls, and Eragon was with them. If the urgals managed to breach, he was to descend to the lower floor and assist the garrison at the lower levels.

'What do you mean _it will take longer than that_? It took the elves fourteen minutes!'

'I'm sorry. We're not used to getting ready for war. We're a peaceful-'

'Peaceful my foot! You would have been ready to ignite battle between yourselves and the dwarves within seconds had I not been present. You managed to muster an army of two hundred thousand! _Two hundred thousand_! And in less than a day! You're telling me that it is too hard to send a small battalion, and volley it with a larger mass?'

'I didn't say that, it's just that it has been so long since we have been at war with anyone that is has been removed from our nature Du Ebrithil. The only reason you're still alive is because you are such a great friend to us water elves. Otherwise, the manner with which you are speaking to me with would have had you killed.'

'You'd need an army to kill me,' Du Ebrithil retorted.

'An army is exactly what I have! You will not talk to me like that!' he said fuming. Realising her mistake she immediately covered her mouth.

'I guess you're as stupid as you are selfish. You let that slip so easily. You have an army? Bring it on. You want a challenge? I'll give you one. Where is your _army_? Hmm?' Du Ebrithil could see Nadia Dröttning fuming in anger. He had just insulted her in possibly the worst way anyone else had in her life.

'Listen to me,' he continued in a dark voice through gritted teeth. 'My friends are probably in battle right now, putting their lives in danger to keep the rest of Alagaësia safe. There are urgals and Riders from other lands invading our homes. Soon enough, they will reach you. Your kingdom, beautiful as it may be, will be a pile of rubble left by these desecrators. If you want to protect what is sacred to you, I need your help. I have already made a pact with the Nuri (flame) elves. They have sent forth a one hundred and fifty thousand strong force to Ilirea, the city of the humans where I know a battle will take place in a few hours. They have probably reached the city by now. I will go and seek help from the dwarves as well, but if you do not go to help, know this: if we are to survive this uprising of evil, you will be forever known as _Khaifa_ (scared). I need to know your choice. If you are to send an army it needs to be quick. You yourself said that there is an army waiting.'

Nadia turned away in shame. 'Leave,' she said, not looking him in the face. 'I will send what I can for now. A more equipped battalion will follow the first.'

'Elrun ono,' Du Ebrithil said before leaving the room.

The air tasted salty. Probably because of how close the city was to the sea. He took a deep Breath of relief. He had been victorious for the second time. Now all he needed to do was contact the dwarves, and then round up as many humans as he could throughout their villages and towns.

'Prepare yourself Eragon. The sun has set and this night will either make us or break us.'


	10. Reckless actions

**Chapter 10**

 **I just want to mention, I'm not exactly a writer. The most writing I usually did is numbers. I am good with numbers, and can retain a high idiolect, but am not a writer. If any of you see that I am missing the skill Christopher Paolini had, please remember this paragraph and instead of giving me private messages of how bad my stories are, tell me what I can do to improve it, or else take the story from me and write it yourself.**

'Who is she? You still haven't told me about her,' his mate asked him.

'Arya this really isn't the time. An army is approaching the walls larger than anything we have ever seen, and you're inquiring about her? I know this is a silly time to answer, but I will still do so because you asked. She is my teacher for the rest of our war with Oathbreaker. Without her I will surely die… and without you,' he added.

'Remind me to kiss you senseless after this battle,' she said teasingly.

'They're within shooting range!' an elf called from one of the higher defence towers.

Immediately after the announcement, Du Dröttningu closed her eyes and whispered something under her breath: the warmth of which was visible in the cold night air.

A high pitched whistling sound was followed by a small sort of black hole in front of her. A few seconds later, a fireball twice the size of him was present in the space where the black hole had been. It grew in size slowly while she continuously whispered words, whether in the ancient language or in the human tongue, he could not tell. Eventually it was twice the size of Moonstone, but half of Saphira. She stopped muttering, and held the fireball for a few moments before throwing it at the centre of the mass that was heading towards them. The effect of the fireball was disastrous. A huge explosion emanated from the contact of the ball. The columns around that division were pushed from the shockwave, but were unharmed. She had wiped clean an entire unit.

He looked at her in amazement, but was shocked to see her panting from exhaustion. This was the first time he had seen her even breathe.

'Fire your arrows!' she managed to yell, before taking another deep breath.

The whipping sound of arrows piercing the air broke the silence that had dominated them for the last few minutes. A great number of urgals fell to their deaths from the arrows. The rest of them realised that they had come close enough for them to fight them back. They started running with ballistae and catapults along with siege crossbows. The army was sorted in squares of one hundred by one hundred, amounting to a thousand per square. There were approximately one hundred and fifty blocks of soldiers by one hundred and fifty which made a mind staggering twenty two and a half billion urgals. They had just taken out approximately two thousand altogether.

They continuously fired arrows until once again they ran out. Du Dröttningu started a fire and they melted brass on the flames, before pouring it over the walls. The floods of molten metal killed a few thousand soldiers, but the only way they would be able to kill enough would be to go and fight them with swords. He went down to the lower fortifications of the city to look for Du Dröttningu. He found her in front of the gates, resting against a brick wall whilst breathing laboriously.

'Dröttningu, I do not think we will be able to hold them off like this. We will run out of supplies. You are tired and I am not. All I have done so far is fire arrows. Give me a chance to go and fight them with my sword,' he pleaded.

'Fine, but I will accompany you along with your mate and niece if they want to go. Otherwise under no circumstances will I allow you to go and battle against several battalions on your own. We need Du Ebrithil to come back soon. He will be able to think of a strategy to end this. I'm not that experienced in battle. I only know what I have read in books and what has been revealed to me by the spell my father gave to me. Nothing more than that,' she said slowly while trying to control her breath. He answered her with a nod, and ran back to his post next to Rya and Arya.

He beckoned them to him. 'I'm going down there to fight them on my own. If you want, you can come with me. Du Dröttningu is going to assist me until we hear from Du Ebrithil. We cannot hold them off for long. The walls are damaged and soon enough they will bring in ladders. I can hold them back for a short while with your help, but ultimately they will either breach us or we will be saved by Du Ebrithil in whatever ways he plans to help us. So, are you going to come?' he asked them after his explanation.

They both responded in the affirmative. Eragon then went down to the northern gates where the most damage had been done.

Eragon had not yet seen his mistress in battle with a sword. He knew that she was exhausted, and she would eventually need to use a weapon. The three of them waited for her to arrive. She came after a few minutes.

'I told them to raise the gates, but only by a fraction and for a few seconds. As soon as they raise it, we slide under it. Keep your weapons drawn before we slide or else you will not be able to unsheathe them before they get to you.'

Eragon was confused. He had seen her a few moments ago panting like a horse that had been forced to cross the entire Hadarac desert in one night. Now however, she was perfectly fine.

'How are you not tired?' he asked her out of curiosity.

'I'll teach you that after we survive this hellhole,' she replied briskly.

The gate lifted as soon as she finished speaking. They rolled underneath the iron before it fell behind them. Eragon stood up and looked around. Several kull had seen them and were advancing on the group. He took a fighting stance and put his guard up. He counted seven kull coming towards them. When they were approximately ten feet away, they clutched their heads and fell on their knees. Their black armour reflected the moonlight off its polished metal. Three of them screamed in agony as the others suddenly stood up and turned around. The ones that had screamed fell on the floor faced down and lifeless, while the ones that had stood up ran back to their ranks and started fighting their own kind. It was quite amusing to watch one kull fight the other when it should have been his battle.

'Eragon duck!' He did so and felt the wind of a weapon pass over his head. He rolled to his right immediately after the blow missed him. Standing upright, he saw an urgal that was approximately his size standing with a club. Eragon was about to attack him when he fell to the ground.

'Nothing will lay a finger on my student and live while I breathe,' Du Dröttningu said before turning around towards a group that was approaching them again. Eragon felt like his mind had gone completely blank. He would have been dead at this very moment had she not warned him. Eragon shook his head and ran in the opposite direction to Du Dröttningu. He wanted to actually kill something with his sword. He couldn't do that if she always killed them off with magic. The first urgal that came to him was struck down by a blow to the neck between its armour after having its blow parried. He felt suddenly happy that Brisingr had made contact with flesh after so long. However his triumph was short lived. The southern gate of the city had somehow been breached and Eragon could hear the screams of dying urgals as they walked into the traps Du Dröttningu had placed just inside the city gates. The screams soon stopped and instead more high pitched yells synched with the deeper ones of the urgals. The elves were dying. The urgals were flooding in. Eragon was about to make towards that particular gate, but received a hard knock to the back of his head.

 **I'm sorry, but I have been downloading a movie and I am going to watch it now. I decided to end the chapter here because I know I won't have the time to finish it tomorrow.**

 **I am also sorry if the battle seems like it doesn't a very bloody air to it. This is the first war I am going to write and I will try my best to make sure that it is up to standard in the next chapter which may be up tomorrow because I don't think I have school the day after.**

 **Bye.**

 **Shadeslayer786.**


	11. Dreams or Prophecy?

**Chapter 10**

 **In the last chapter there was a war, but I don't really know how to do large scale battles. I will try my best to add a more war-like atmosphere to the next war chapter, but it will probably be as bad as yesterday's one. I seem to be better at making new characters and plotting my story rather than something like this. I also needed to end it quickly because I myself thought it was bad.**

 **There will be a lemon in this one, but not in the original one. From now, all lemons will be kept on this story.**

 _A wooden creaking sound, mingling with waves pounded in his ears. Around him were sailors fighting the waves to stand upright. The salty water splashed on board and leaked through below deck. Around them was a fleet. A fleet of battleships built particularly for war. Ahead of them was the port of a city. It looked familiar, but he couldn't tell from when. They docked and plundered the town. Dragons were flying above and burning homes. Screams and cries filled the air along with the sounds of burning wood and dragon roars. To the east of the city was a valley between a large mountain range. Throughout the valley, there was a thin river which trailed down into a lake._

 _Teirm!_

 _Eragon stood inside a grimy room. In front of him stood Du Dröttningu and Du Ebrithil, swords drawn facing each other. On the floor was a dead man that looked similar to Du Ebrithil, except that he was wearing white instead of a navy blue, and with a red cape. They began to duel. Eragon tried to scream at them to tell them to stop, but they wouldn't listen and continued to fight. They would never spar. Du Dröttningu would use magic to kill him, and Du Ebrithil would try to kill her before she cast a spell. They were both serious, and every time Du Dröttningu started a spell, Du Ebrithil hacked at her again to distract her. Outside someone was banging on the door, but none of the two were willing to drop their guard. The last thing he saw before waking up was Du Ebrithil and Du Dröttningu both embed their swords in one another before he saw himself walk in through the door which had just been blown down…_

'Stupid Rider,' a female voice said. His head throbbed and he felt as though he was falling through an endless pit. The image of his two teachers killing each other had been engraved into his mind and wouldn't leave his conscience.

The room he was in had a dingy air to it. He could feel the breath of someone on his face. He felt relieved when he recognised the aroma as pine crushed needles. Eragon tried to open his eyes, but only managed to keep them open for a second. The first thing he saw was Arya.

He spoke, but through unbelievable pain.

'Am I in heaven? Or am I still alive?' he asked.

He heard her sob and then felt her lips on his own. Tears dropped onto his face as she wept while kissing him repeatedly.

He opened his eyes and propped himself up against the headboard of the bed he was on.

He looked around the room. The war seemed to be over. Present in the room were: Du Dröttningu, Arya, Rya, two male elves and one female elf along with two dwarves; all of whom he didn't recognise. In the corner of the room, stood a man in a hooded sort of shirt. He looked like Du Ebrithil, but his master had usually worn a blue cloak of the same style. This person had a white cloak and a red cape.

He blushed slightly at having been seen attaching lips with his queen.

'Forgive me,' he said humbly. 'I was a little distracted.'

Du Dröttningu spoke first. 'Eragon, allow me to introduce you to these five who have joined us today.'

She pointed at the female elf, then the two male ones.

'This is Nadia Dröttning, queen of the water elves. The boots you are wearing now are actually hers,' she said with an amused look on her face. 'This is Niran Könungr: king of the Nuri elves. He gave the chest plate that you are wearing. And finally, this is someone Du Ebrithil didn't know about. The king of the sky elves. He doesn't have a specific name, but he is called Könungr abr Layal by his race.'

'Greetings Eragon,' they all said in unison.

'Greetings,' he replied.

Du Dröttningu continued, 'And these two dwarves are the leaders of the two greatest dwarf clans.'

They both greeted him and then Du Dröttningu continued speaking. 'Eragon, what did you do? What were you thinking? You could have died.'

Eragon was about to answer, but was broken off by his teacher. 'Do not waste my time. We have more urgent issues. Now that you are awake, we can continue, but first I will explain what happened after you fainted. The fire elves came, then the water elves alongside the elves of the clouds. They ambushed the urgals after we had been breached. There were many casualties, but we still eliminated them. Anyway, that isn't the problem. Around three thousand Riders are heading here from the west. Most probably those of Oathbreaker. Fourteen dragon eggs have gone missing, and moreover I haven't taught you anything. If Oathbreaker is among these Riders, we are definitely going to die. Each and every one of us. Ilirea is in no state for us to hold them off for long. It's either every man for himself or evacuate all of Alagaësia to Farthen Dur. Then we will leave for Edoc'sil deloi. Nobody here is safe anymore. The destruction dragons are capable of spreading will make humans elves and dwarves all extinct. Regardless, only the dragons can possibly counter them, which is why we are heading for Edoc'sil deloi or somewhere else. The dragon eggs that have been stolen were vital for us to win this war, but it seems that we will need to wait for more eggs to be lain.'

'Why? Who took the eggs?' he asked her.

Arya answered him, 'We don't know. We also don't know where Du Ebrithil went after meeting with the dwarves.'

Eragon looked back at the figure in the corner. It was a replica of the one that was dead on the floor. He was about to ask someone who it was, but the man shifted and became a gas.

Eragon's eyes widened in shock as the man wafted into smoke and diffused into the air.

'Eragon? Are you ok?' Du Dröttningu asked.

He snapped back into his senses and replied in the affirmative.

'Ok. So…' Du Dröttningu said rubbing her palms together. 'We need to get moving. Standing in this room and talking of what would happen won't help us. We need to take action, and quickly. I think I have an idea, but I would like to hear if anyone else has any opinions they would like to voice.'

Nobody said anything so Du Dröttningu started laying out her ideas on the wall of the room with magic by burning the wall to make her lines.

'We need to abandon Alagaësia if we want to survive with our freedom. Under Oathbreaker's rule, it will just be dictatorship. However, we can't just leave everyone here and escape ourselves, no. We need to take with us everyone we can. I think the best way to do that would be to send one of us to each district of villages and cities to tell them to leave their homes and come with us. Eragon and I will go to Gil'ead and take the citizens straight to Farthen Dur. The reason I will be paired with him is because I need to instruct him in the art of magic, and I haven't had an opportunity to do so until now. You three,' she said pointing at the three elven lords, 'you will go to the villages in and around the spine. Forget Narda. Unfortunately we do not have the time to-'

'Why not?' a challenging voice asked from the doorway.

Everyone turned their heads in that direction and saw Du Ebrithil standing with a sideways gait.

Behind him, the sounds of children crying and cattle could be heard over the voices of hundreds if not thousands of people. Eragon walked over to the door and looked outside. Standing in the courtyard was most of the human population of Alagaësia.

'Seems like you're ahead of the game,' Du Dröttningu complimented. Something glinted in her eye which he recognised from only one incident in his life. His sparring with Arya. That was the second time Arya had shown any affection towards him. The first had been when she had run headlong into the empire in search of him. Du Dröttningu the winked at him which caused him to cringe slightly. Eragon was amused and a sudden thought came to his mind.

 _Is there something going on between the two of them?_

 _Most probably. This is the first time you're seeing a relationship take place which isn't mine and Fírnen's. You'll be seeing a lot of things you didn't notice in your own relationship with Arya. Trust me, it's going to be funny._

 _Saphira! I'm so sorry I totally forgot about you! Are you ok?_

 _Of course I'm ok! I was the one killing the urgals that had breached us._

'The urgals from the spine are all wiped out. There was nothing left of them for me to save them from. They were probably killed by the Riders. Teirm is under attack. There is also a fleet with the Riders this time, so there will be a use for foot soldiers. Also, I was the one who took the dragons eggs. I took a few of them to lands outside of Alagaësia and bring the news that eleven of them have hatched. Here are the other three eggs that are yet to hatch. The new dragon Riders are there somewhere in the crowd. I have more bad news. Some of the other realms I visited have already been dominated by, or are allies of Oathbreaker. I had to kill a few hundred to escape with my life. They are being used as farming islands for breeding new dragons. They are then grown larger than their actual size and trained. So for example, a two month old dragon will be the size of that white dragon seated next to Saphira.'

'Well. Let's all rest up and we'll head out tomorrow,' Du Dröttningu concluded.

Eragon and Arya decided to use an abandoned room which Murtagh ha once used to sleep in. The memories of his half-brother stung him like a giant scorpion's pincers.

'Eragon,' Arya called to get his attention.

'Yes dear?'

'There is something I need to tell you,' she said tentatively.

'Well go on then,' he pressed.

'Four months ago… I conceived your child. Our child,' she whispered with tears running down her face.

A sudden gravity pulled on his wits. He was desperate to find out where his firstborn was, but he couldn't bear to see his mate cry. He walked over to her and wiped the water from her face. Pulling her close to his chest, Eragon rocked back and forth to make her comfortable. He kissed her forehead and pulled her face up, cupping her cheeks in his palms.

She had stopped crying and Eragon asked her where the baby was.

'I left her with Blodhgarm who took her to Edoc'sil deloi. Eragon, we may not get another chance in a long time. I want to make this night one to remember,' she requested.

'Do you need to ask?'

Arya lay panting next to him. He himself was exhausted, but managed to speak through his panting.

'Was the child a boy or a girl?' he asked.

'A girl whom I name Selena, after your mother.

 **The two stars are meant to indicate a lemon. If any of you actually have a desire to read what happened during that time, be my guest. I received seventeen requests from eight different people for this, but it may not be that good considering it was my first time.**

 **s/11543779/1/The-war-of-the-Riders-Part-II-Ebrithil**


	12. Unknown battles

**Chapter 12**

 **Once again, thanks to Sebastiaan Asselbergs for reviewing my last chapter.**

 **As of now, I have a headache, so if anything seems insanely crazy I apologise in advance. I have influenza and my asthma has been working up lately, but I didn't want to miss school so I still went, but it took its toll today.**

The morning sun crept through the window, bathing the room in the warmth of its light. Although it was warm inside the room, winter had settled its sharp iciness into the blades of grass. Although the snow wasn't present, there was frost dying the green of the grass into white. On his right slept a goddess, while he thought about what his child would look like. Eragon thought about the consequences of losing this current war.

He would lose his family. He would lose the Riders whom he had fought so hard and sacrificed so much for. He would lose the land that he loved: Alagaësia. The country he had grown up in, and had many memories of. He didn't care the least about his own life, but rather the lives of others that he wasn't willing to martyr.

Arya slowly stirred, but didn't wake up. They needed to get moving. The pass between the spine and the distance from there to Ilirea would buy enough time for them to get to the first dwarven halls of the Beor Mountains.

He reached one of his hands out towards his mate and let his fingers explore her body for a while. He memorised every curve and savoured the feel of her impossibly soft skin.

She still wasn't waking up so Eragon decided to let her sleep for however long she wanted. He put on his clothes and donned his armour. The moment he slipped his chest-plate on he felt a new warmth radiate through him.

He covered Arya's naked body with the sheets properly and left the room. He made his way down he spiral steps and heard someone groaning in pain. Eragon quickened his pace so as to find out who it was.

He reached the bottom of the staircase and followed the noise which lead him to the courtyard of the city. He was quite shocked by what he saw, but moreover, he was scared.

In the centre of the clearing, Du Ebrithil was crouching on one knee with blood gushing out of his thigh. Opposite him stood Du Dröttningu, sword drawn and casting a spell. A sudden headache tore at his head while his vision became impaired. He closed his eyes and gnawed at his head in agony. His legs crumpled and the dream he had seen during the time he had spent fainted flashed before him. What was going on?

He hear the clashing of metal on metal and opened his eyes. His vision and mental stability had miraculously returned to normal.

 _What was that?_

Du Ebrithil was clutching his head and wore an expression that spelt pain. Although he was undergoing such psychological torment, Du Ebrithil wasn't making a sound of protest. Du Dröttningu was staring straight at him, not showing any signs of aiding or torturing him. Eragon couldn't bear to watch this happen. His mistress was torturing his master through a mental probe. Eragon didn't want the two of them to fight, due to the dream he had seen of them killing each other.

'Dröttningu stop!' he yelled while running towards her. 'Stop!' he repeated. She showed no signs of acknowledging him and continued with whatever she was doing to him. Eragon went in to tackle her, but she simply spun around in one deft movement and kicked him with the outside of her foot which made contact with his cheek. He felt his new skin replace his old one as Oromis came into his view. Eragon spat on the ground and went again to tackle her. Once again she manhandled him to the ground. Eragon tried several times more but each time was met with the same retaliation.

 _Damn it! Why must a_ female _be in possession of so much power?_

After the seventh time Eragon drew Brisingr. He ran towards her with his sword held above his head. This time Du Ebrithil seemed to be released from his trance and was panting on the ground and crawling away from Du Dröttningu and himself.

She was still facing the other way, but by the time Eragon decided to stop, she had turned around and kicked him in the stomach. The wind was knocked out of him and he leaned forward in pain. He thought that was the end of it, but was totally wrong and wished he had been right. She gave him a volley on the chin from her knee, making him cry out in pain. Arya and Rya had both come out of their rooms and were watching from the top of the cracked stairs which led into the palace. Half of Alagaësia was watching him, and he was getting abused like a naughty cow.

He tasted blood inside his mouth and felt vulnerable. He hadn't bled in a long time and this wasn't the end of his bleeding he supposed.

'If you're going to be my student, you need to learn to respect. I was carrying out my business with him and you came here to interrupt me? Our first lesson is endurance. Allowing me to understand how long it takes to break you,' she said darkly.

'What do you mean?' he asked, but he soon found out. Du Dröttningu executed a hook kick to his left ribs which he heard crack and then replace.

Carrying out a long volley of physical attacks, Du Dröttningu had torn apart his body, and he now stood in front of her as Oromis.

'Fool!' he heard Oromis say. 'She is trying to discipline you for what you have done! Quickly! Defend yourself!'

Eragon raised Brisingr and waited for her to strike at him again. Du Dröttningu lashed at his left, but pulled back almost immediately before striking him with her right leg. The feint worked and Eragon received another punishing blow to the ribs. His vision blurred from pain, but he wouldn't give up so easily. He dropped Brisingr: it was giving him too much extra weight.

Du Dröttningu stepped forward and executed a long series of complicated kicks and punches in his direction. Eragon blocked, parried and dodged most but still wasn't fast enough to totally hold her off.

The final blow of that chain of attack was a roundhouse kick in the air to his left cheek.

 _Eragon! Where are you!_ Saphira called in his mind.

Not wanting her to panic he replied explaining that he was training with Du Dröttningu.

 _It feels painful._

 _It is Saphira. Now please let me concentrate!_

His dragon left his mind and he once again put his full focus on the fist fight. One of his eyes were purple and he had it closed. His left arm was bruised, along with the lining of the ribs under his arms.

Arya watched him fight without moving from her spot. He kept getting relentlessly abused, but eventually managed to understand his teacher's fighting style.

He blocked parried dodged and ducked hundreds of times, but no matter how hard he tried she would eventually manage to land a hit.

After what seemed like an age, Du Dröttningu jumped backwards, and just when he thought it was over, she started casting a spell. Once she finished, she ran at him faster than anything he had ever seen and landed a long chain of attacks on his face and chest. When she was finished, a large flame protruded from her fist which she punched him with, scorching him.

She swiped her leg under his weight, causing him to fall on his back. The air left his body from the impact of the ground. He opened his eyes to see her raise a fist which would make him unconscious, but a hand intervened and struck Du Dröttningu on the side of her head. Du Ebrithil gave him offered him a hand and he took it. While he was being pulled back onto his legs, he noticed something: a smile spread across her face.

'So! A two on one challenge? Bring it,' she exclaimed to the crowd competitively. Du Ebrithil took a fighting stance while Eragon did his best to remain upright. His legs ached from having to keep him standing and there was blood stained all over his armour and skin. All of his skin and most of Oromis's was mutilated with blood.

Oromis suddenly started speaking. 'Eragon, as much as it will hurt to do this, I will strike her in the temple. I just need the energy from you. I have no idea as to what might have happened to her, but this isn't normal. First she was torturing someone who she was flirting with the day before and now she is beating you black and blue. Whatever has got into her needs to stop. Even if it means for me to have to attack my own daughter.'

Eragon simply nodded, too tired to speak with his mind or mouth. He felt an abrupt loss in energy within him, while Du Dröttningu fell unconscious before everyone.

Eragon didn't have enough vitality left inside him to carry on standing so he allowed his legs to give beneath him. Arya came running down the steps and fell into a squat by his side. She started healing his wounds. Eragon fell back from exhaustion, his mate supporting his back.

He touched the borders of her mind which gave him the permission he sought.

 _How is she so powerful? And why?_ He asked her.

 _She is from the royal family of the forest elves. If she is Oromis's daughter then she should be. Oromis is the cousin of my grandmother Dellanir Dröttning. Every female in the royal is enchanted with a spell which lets them accumulate power faster than a male elf can. Du Dröttningu and I are the same age, but I think Oromis may have amplified the spell which is making it work faster meaning that she is stronger than I am: whether mentally, physically or in magic,_ she explained.

 _Do you have the spell?_ Eragon asked hopefully.

 _Yes, but I don't know it yet, and I obviously do not have the same abilities as she does. Whatever Oromis did to her, it wasn't good. She seems to be driven by sadness and isn't as disciplined as a normal elf is in using magic,_ Arya replied.

 _Arya… what happened to Fírnen?_

 _He died protecting me from a blast of magic. It would have surely killed me if it managed to do so to him._ A tear fell on his shoulder, but he was too tired to wipe them off her face.

A wave of anguish and sadness overwhelmed him through their mental link. This reminded him of the time he had spent during the war when Oromis had died and he had been in possession of his Eldunarí.

 _Eragon…_ she broke off while crying. Eragon could feel the eyes of Saphira watching them. He suddenly felt the loneliness the both of them were feeling through the two of them. Saphira because of the natural link he had with her, and Arya because their minds were attached. Through the torrents of emotions he was receiving, he saw Du Ebrithil standing on the other side of the courtyard, seemingly waiting for him.

By now he had gathered enough energy to move around freely. Around them humans from the cities and villages were watching this episode of sadness. After a while more, four elves came and moved Du Dröttningu's body back into the palace. Eventually Arya stopped crying and she allowed him to stand up. The humans started to disperse and discuss the events among themselves. Eragon stood up and told Arya to go back to their room before going to Du Ebrithil.

'Thank you Eragon. You saved me from a lot of pain although you had to suffer so much more. I'm sorry about it, but there's nothing I can do from being sorry so instead I appreciate what you did then,' he gratified.

'Thank you ebrithil,' he replied.

'I think you deserve to know what and why this was happening the first thing in the morning. Let us walk. Last night, while we were discussing the tactics for evacuation, I saw that you had noticed how she was flirting with me. I was a bit taken aback myself, and my curiosity got the better of me. In the morning she was organising the human population of Alagaësia and I decided she had a lot on her mind and that it would be a perfect moment for me to sneak a probe into her and find out what was going on. Unfortunately she found me when I touched it and immediately put up her barriers. The only problem was that these barriers were to keep me in, not out. She trapped me in her mind and started tormenting me. She even sent her own probe to find all the secrets I have kept over the last five centuries. Had you not come she would have found everything I know about these lands, and even her.'

'I see. Ebrithil, we need to start moving. If we just sit in Ilirea repeating that we will get to Farthen Dur but do not leave, how will we do so? I understand how hard it is to sort out everybody here, but if we send out one of the elven armies, we should be able to make the humans follow and have them escorted by another army at the rear.'

'Let's go now,' he said surprisingly.

 **Sorry for the abrupt ending. I don't feel right and I know that if I stop now I will not be able to carry on so I ended it here.**

 **I also need a beta reader, so if any of you know anyone that does it specifically for Inheritance Cycle, please leave their username in a review.**


	13. Evacuation

**Chapter 13**

 **I found myself a beta reader! Hopefully there shouldn't be any more missing letter or spaces.**

 **Thanks to guest and Sebastiaan Asselbergs for leaving a review.**

Eragon felt like a shepherd. The floods of humans and elves that were passing by made him feel like something close to a famer herding a flock of sheep. A few leagues to their north was the Edda River. Along with him and his Riders which were six hundred and seventeen in number, there were: four hundred thousand dwarves, altogether from each clan; five hundred and fifty thousand elves left from after the war against the urgals; every human in Alagaësia and Surda, amounting to about ninety thousand. Every race other than the humans had seemed to prosper. The reason why, Eragon couldn't figure out.

There were barely enough people to fill Teirm. Most of the humans had died during an attack of fourteen fanghur on the group. The elves had taken out most of them with bows, but eventually Saphira had been needed to go and pick off the remaining four in case of another attack.

He was also in a bad mood because Saphira had returned with missing scales and gashes all across her face. She reported that the army of Oathbreaker was less than a league behind them and that it was only because of the uneven ground that they still hadn't noticed them. The group had needed to pick up the pace after this message.

When Eragon had inquired about the wounds on her, she had told him that she attacked them for a good few minutes hindering their progress. She had also confirmed that Oathbreaker wasn't among them.

Eragon had used a scrying mirror to contact the Riders and request that they send everyone they could spare. To his delight, the person he spoke to was Blodhgarm. When he had asked about Selena, his friend said to be patient.

Eragon spat on the ground infuriated. Everything on this migration was going wrong. He was worried about what would happen if they were unlucky enough to be spotted by the army they were evading, but moreover, his daughter. Blodhgarm hadn't told him anything about her which had annoyed him more than anything else. Eragon had opted to stay behind and kill as many of their pursuers as he could. He had boots which allowed stepping on water so he could essentially run all the way to Edoc'sil deloi if he needed. Saphira had acceded to remain with him, but Eragon forced her to go since she was large enough for a good few humans to travel on her. The dragons would relay all of the humans first, and then take the elves. The water elves could travel by themselves, so there was no need to take them.

All of the elven nations other than those of Du Dröttningu's had made the mistake of assuming that they were sending reinforcements only for war. They hadn't considered the fact there would probably be an evacuation due to the fact that they were sending such large masses of soldiers.

Eragon continuously thought about how stupid they were, but then remembered that they hadn't yet heard of Oathbreaker. Du Dröttningu had recovered from her crazed maniacal attacks on Du

Ebrithil and confessed that she was in fact in love with him during their stay in Farthen Dur while the dwarves were preparing to leave.

Du Ebrithil had accepted her after taking permission from Oromis through Eragon. He had been afraid that it was because of his father that Oromis was dead. Eragon had reassured him of it by telling him that Galbatorix had also been Brom's father and that he had taught him.

'Ebrithil! We are approaching the Edda River,' Maximus announced through the babble of the humans and dwarves. The elves were so much more organised and could hold their tongue much longer than other races could.

He nodded to show he understood. 'And I noticed about half a league away,' he whispered to himself. Arya sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder from her horse.

'Eragon,' she whispered.

'Yes dear?'

'I miss Fírnen. I haven't sat on a horse since he hatched for me and now it just feels so wrong… like it's a bad memory to show what I've lost,' she said with a melancholic tone.

'Do you want to sit on this one?' he offered.

'No. I'd rather sit on you,' she said before chuckling. She sighed and continued. 'It won't make a difference. The one I love is gone. No beast is the same as a dragon. I have never heard of another dragon hatching for a Rider. Even if it were possible, it wouldn't be the same. Some things you experience are meant to be just for that time. When Fírnen hatched for me it was an event that has light only upon that instance. To watch it happen again will be too hollow. Like a mockery at my loss.'

Eragon wanted to make her laugh. He wanted to do anything that would make her happy again. He lifted her off of her horse and pulled her onto his lap.

'No! Eragon I didn't mean it!' she giggled.

'Would you rather be on the horse?' he asked.

'I'd… no. I wouldn't. No one else can take this position so I might as well take advantage of it.'

Eragon looked around for Rya. He found her walking behind his mount.

'Don't you have something to ride?'

'No. The last donkey was taken by a dwarf. Even if it wasn't taken I will never ride a donkey in my eternal lifetime.'

'Where is Moonstone?' this time Arya was the one to speak.

'Training with Saphira. Uncle I still haven't had a single lesson with you. When will we start?'

'I'm sorry Rya. I've been busy lately so I haven't had the time. I had to leave and after I returned we had the war against the urgals. Then I was engaged in that fight with Du Dröttningu, and during our stay with the dwarves Arya wanted me all to herself which was a bit selfish of her, but I- ow!' he shouted as he received a slap from his mate.

'What was that for?'

Arya leaned closer to his ear before whispering, 'She had feelings for Murtagh, and now he's dead. When she asked me I had no answer so I went in search for his body. I found him beheaded on the west foot of the spine with large craters around him.'

'Uncle. Can I use that horse?' Rya requested.

'Yes. No one else is using it. In fact, I may as well give you a lesson now. Actually… we may not have time,' he said darkly looking back from his horse.

'Why what's wrong?' Just as she finished her question she looked back and understood what he meant.

Behind them was a thunder of dragons flying towards them at a breakneck speed. An alarm was sounded as he saw Saphira and Moonstone fly towards them from in front and land near the horses. The animals reared up in fear, but Arya reached into their minds to soothe them. Eragon jumped off and mounted Saphira as fast as he could. Arya came running towards him holding a Dauthdaert. Eragon took it from her and put it into a slot specifically made for it. Saphira leaped into the air while he strung his bow and aimed at his first target. He let the arrow fly. The Riders were wearing clad black armour, so the only place he could aim for and hit his mark was between the helmet and breastplate. The Rider jerked as the arrow embedded itself inside his neck. He fell off and his dragon flapped even faster to avenge its Rider.

He prepared himself for the insane manoeuvres Saphira commonly used for her kills. She flipped and flew under the dragon, scratching its belly with her claws and teeth. After they emerged from under it on the other side, she bit down on its tail and hung onto it while the dragon flailed in spasms of pain. Finally she let go, but lunged forwards and broke its wings in one bite. Sixteen others from the opposing team were remaining and Eragon felt a bit surprised. A bit earlier there had been about thirty, and only four of them while the humans were mounting the dragons. Matthias rode up to him and gave him the bad news that seven Riders had gone back to call for reinforcements.

Eragon cursed loudly and told his student to finish off the rest of them and return to the ground before the fresh assault arrived. A gnawing sense irritated him at the back of his head. He constantly thought they would be attacked by the time most of the Riders came. Only eighteen had come and gone, but there was no trace of the rest.

He looked back towards the direction of the Beor Mountains and dread ruled over his conscience as a total of six hundred dragon flew towards them.

 **This chapter may be up later than usual, but I don't know how much longer. This is the first time I am using a beta reader so things may not work out at the fastest of rates.**


	14. Unanswered requests

**Chapter 14**

 **Editing is at the bottom.**

'Dröttningu! You need to do something! They'll kill us all!' Eragon yelled.

Du Dröttningu had her eyes closed and was standing facing the south, the direction where the Riders were coming from. Eragon pulled on his hair in anticipation of a large battle and many deaths, until she started to speak.

'There. I've made a wall. It should hold them off for a while. The Riders need to come quickly or else only five of us will survive,' she whispered.

Dragons from the island cycled as they took humans in turn: when one left, another arrived. Like this, they continued for about an hour.

When all of the humans and most of the dwarves had gone, the invisible wall broke. Riders and foot soldiers alike charged towards them brandishing their weapons in the darkness. Rya and Eragon mounted their dragons. All the elves were gone and only a few humans remained. Eragon signalled for everyone to stop.

'Saphira and Moonstone can carry the rest. Du Dröttningu, Du Ebrithil and I will stay behind. Arya go with Saphira. She gets agitated when someone familiar isn't around her,' he ordered everyone.

'Do you think you're some sort of warlord that you can take on this entire onslaught?' Arya challenged.

Eragon didn't want to argue with her so he walked over to her and lifted her off her feet before carrying the squirming elf over to Saphira. The only thing he cared about right now was the welfare of his daughter and mate. He held her in place while he tightened the straps around her feet. Saphira lifted off immediately before Arya could say anything, towards the shore to pick up the remaining humans. Moonstone followed close behind. Eragon turned back to the oncoming army and unsheathed Brisingr. The three of them slowly walked backwards towards the shore to ensure that they could escape if the heat got out of hand. The first soldier that arrived was armoured in blue iron with a symbol similar to that of Galbatorix's. Du Ebrithil slashed him apart and kicked the body at another soldier to distract him. Eragon just watched as Du Ebrithil hacked at one soldier after another in awe. When he had fought against his master in the cave of the waterfall there had been none of the relentlessness that was currently present inside him. After a few minutes a dragon came hurtling through the sky and attempted to land on him but he threw Brisingr into it, diverting his fall. The Rider fell off and approached Eragon with his sword in his hand. Eragon was unarmed so he pulled his bow from his back and with the efficiency and skill of an elf he pulled another arrow back on it sending the stick straight through the forehead of his opponent before he could react. The dragon roared in the agony of losing its partner and made a dash for Eragon. Eragon rolled to the side as flames crawled over his nape, singing his skin and replacing it. Oromis blurred into his vision and he realised how close he had been t totally losing his normal body.

He turned back around to the dragon and took aim again. He fired but the scales of the dragon deflected the projectile, rendering it harmless. Eragon needed his sword.

'Kausta!' he shouted before grasping his retrieved sword in his right hand. He braced himself to counter the charging dragon, but lost his concentration when his master called to him.

'Eragon! Leave quickly! We can't hold them off!' Eragon nodded and thought of how he would make it to the shore without the dragon killing him in one swipe. Thinking fast, he pulled another arrow back on his bow: aiming for the eye of the beast. Upon release, he ran for the beach. He could walk on the water but if he dropped below the surface of the water he would drown. Without thinking twice he ran straight into the seawater, however, although he knew what would happen, it still amazed him. Underneath him was the sea and it felt disorientating to be standing on something that would usually kill him because of the strength of the tides?

He looked around for Du Ebrithil and Du Dröttningu but couldn't see them. From the bank came a shower of arrows, all targeting him. Eragon ran further out towards the emptiness of the sea, evading the death rain by only a few feet. Eragon took a glance backwards to see an entire horde of dragons following him out to sea.

 _ **Arya**_

The beating of Saphira's wings drowned out all other sounds. Rain fell harder than pellets of hail. The only thought in her mind was that of Eragon. Not even Selena was occupying the large expanse of her elven mind. Thunder struck somewhere to their right. The humans behind her squealed in fright, but to Arya is was nothing but a noise. A few miles ahead of them the peak of a mountain interfered with the endless scape of the sea. Arya slowly shuffled from her place to get a better look at it. The point of the mountain covered a small portion of the ascending moon. The scenery reminded her of the time she had mercilessly broken her mate's core during the Agaetí Blödhren. Arya's heart burned at the thought of how he must have felt and the cruelty of what she had done to him. She shook her head to rid the thoughts from her mind but they kept returning to her every time she looked at the dark sector of the moon.

 _Arya, we are here,_ Saphira informed her.

She could feel the depression that resided in the dragon at having to leave her Rider, and didn't care to try and conceal her own.

 _I understand how you feel for him. I felt the same for Fírnen. We can choose who we want to be with but cannot choose for how long. Besides this you now have a hatchling of your own to take care of. The reason I didn't let you have any say before I took flight was because had already discussed with Eragon regarding you. We had both agreed on making sure you were…_

 _Why?_ Arya replied sharply. _Why shouldn't I be with him? I don't care whether or not there is an infant waiting for me at the island. I would rather let her die than live another day without him._

 _Do you think my Rider is someone who would accept the idea of something as ridiculous as that? I have been with him for a long time and I know that although he can make many mistakes, it doesn't matter. He follows his beliefs. If there is a flaw in something that he decides in then I point it out, however, I never oppose whatever he may propose._

 _Yes but-_

 _While we were training with Du Ebrithil, on the second day, he asked what was distracting him. Eragon replied that it was you and then Du Ebrithil tried to provoke him to see if there was anything in the world he would die for. It turned out that the only two thing she cared about was you and I. At the time he still hadn't found out about Selena. Do you not think he knows what the consequences of his death will mean on you? I guarantee that he will not give his life for any task unless he is sure he will make it out of the other side alive. He isn't stupid either. He can be silly but never stupid. He values you too much and that is both a risk factor and advantage to him. The risk is that if you die he will be broken beyond the repair any soul in Alagaësia can supply him with. The advantage is that he will fight to his last breath for you because you give him meaning. By now the two of us could have killed that entire battalion but we decided against it for you. I myself care for you princess._

 _I'm no longer a princess. Or even a queen at that. Only Rhunon, Yaela, Fiolr and the son of Yaela remain of my kingdom. Everyone has died either in the fire of Du Weldenvarden or during the siege. I have lost everything,_ Arya complained

 _Or have you?_ Saphira challenged. _You prefer your mate to your first-born and yet you say you've lost everything? Bah! Never have I heard anything more ridiculous. You're placing a higher value on something material while Eragon is what will stay with you until one of you die and since you are Riders you cannot possibly die from age._

 _Yes but Saphira he will die on the battlefield. If not today then the next time we confront Oathbreaker's lot,_ she argued.

 _Not while he has the zeal to protect you and Selena. This is besides the idea of having him under the protection of Oromis. Need be I will insert a thousand gems into him but I will not let my Rider die unless it is absolutely necessary,_ the dragon reassured.

The humans behind her began to whisper among themselves but Arya paid them no heed. Humans wasted so much time. For an elf time didn't matter but humans had short lives and they couldn't afford to waste it, yet they would always jabber on about things of no consequence.

She moved into a position more comfortable for her and closed her eyes.

 _ **Eragon**_

Forty leagues had been covered by the time Eragon could see the shaded sector of the moon which signified that he was near Edoc'sil deloi. The water hadn't proved to be difficult to cross, but his legs were aching from the trek, but he was still scared that he would drown if he went below the surface.

Eragon had found out that he could manipulate water due to the effect his boots had on him. This had given him the advantage over the opposition. He had sent tidal waves onto the beach which had killed several of them.

Upon arrival at the island beach, he fell on his back panting for breath. The sand stuck to his skin and infiltrated his clothes. Eragon sat up and looked around, absorbing the familiarity of his spot for mourning the loss of Alagaësia and Arya. Those were the only things that Eragon had actually missed during his time on this island. The land he had saved and the elf he had fallen in love with.  
Eragon stayed in that position for a while before succumbing to his exhaustion.

A torrent of water from the sea woke him from his peaceful slumber. The morning sun penetrated the dense winter clouds, illuminating the sea with a radiant aura. The biting cold suddenly bit at his body where the water had reached. There was a sun but no heat. Eragon stood up and dusted himself of any sand, but was unsuccessful. After using magic to complete his task, he realised how hungry he was. There was no food around and Eragon didn't eat meat unless it was absolutely necessary. Putting his problems aside, he started to walk. Knowing how far he was from the capital of the island he wanted some company. Eragon unsheathed his sword and slid it through his bare hands. Oromis appeared in his vision while Eragon sheathed his sword again and started to jog at a calm pace.

The island consisted of a mountain range, six plains, four beaches and six dragon cities: one in each plain. The beach had been his favourite area on Edoc'sil deloi because of its solitariness. This had been the place he had spent months upon months crying in. Not only had he left his homeland behind, he had left his heart. This had been his only refuge from insanity. Eragon made a puddle and cast a spell.

'Draumr kópa,' he whispered. The hall of the Riders appeared but it was nothing like what Eragon could remember of it: especially with the dead bodies of dragons and Riders that were on the floor.

 _The reason my call for help had gone almost unanswered. Most of them were dead…_

 **I have some bad news. This is the last chapter I'm uploading for the next five or six months. My final exams are coming and I can't get my revision done as well as all the homework that my teachers set specifically for me. They realised that I get them done as quickly as I can so I can do my own personal revising and they decided that they should give me a crap tonne more homework than the rest of the class gets, which is sad meaning that there won't be any more updates in quite a long time. There will definitely be an update on the day after my final exam so hopefully I'll be back then.**

 **Also, I will be reading PM's because they come up on my email. If any of you have any suggestions regarding the plot or how I can make it better, please tell me and I'll do my best (once I'm back) to acknowledge it and try to make a few alterations.**

 **Bye! ;)**


	15. Utter Confusion

**Chapter 15**

 **A/N: WOW it's been a long time since I touched a keyboard. I am finally back not that I expect many people to remember me but I have finally finished my exams. I actually finished on the Friday before the weekend for additional physics but there was the problem that I had forgotten everything that has happened in this story. Then, another problem arose, I realised how boring and plain and rushed and restricted I was in the first month or two of writing. The number of grammatical errors and lack of language features seriously did a number on me. I felt like re-writing the whole thing from beginning to end but decided against that because that was just a stupid thing to do: after several months of English revision and learning different ways of how to improve the standard of English when writing made me a quite aggravated when I started to read through the story. One more thing is that my attitudes and understandings of things have changed me to an extent where my story seems quite bland so I will make an attempt at seasoning it from here on but there will be a big difference in the themes of the story. Anyway, here is the next chapter after over five months of revision.**

 _ **Eragon**_

His stomach lurched at the impact of the devastating scene that lay before him: charred wood, metal and stoned littered the spider web cracked marble floor of the dragon palace. Through the debris he could see movement but not much. Only two things mattered to the rider, his beloved and his dragon – not even his new-born.

Eragon ended the spell in grief and turned to Oromis.

'This is disgusting. Oathbreaker made a promise not to attack Alagaësia but didn't say anything about here,' he said in a discontented tone.

'Patience Eragon. Things will turn out fine,' he reassured.

'How?' Eragon asked, tugging at his hair impatiently. 'Actually, it doesn't matter. The only thing that does matter is that I get to the capital as fast as I can.'

Eragon looked around the skies for a wild dragon, however there wasn't a single living airborne creature.

 _He must have killed the wild ones too…_ he thought bitterly.

Eragon often called on the wild dragons to take him to places when Saphira wasn't around. They hadn't a specific way of communicating yet he managed to get his point across most of the time. Times when he couldn't, they would usually attack him. He needed to run.

 _ **Du Dröttningu**_

Du Dröttningu turned to Du Ebrithil. The swarm was dead. All of them. A blast of pure energy had sent shockwaves of raw magic across the landscape. Tidal waves had appeared from somewhere which had helped them immeasurably.

'I'll teach you that someday,' she whispered while walking past him.

Du Dröttningu had manipulated a pebble to transform it into raw energy. Matter is a dense form of energy and to transfer it back requires a lot of energy but produces more than one can contain within himself. It is the same type of magic that destroyed the riders at Vroengard. A rider had used a spell to turn his body into energy and exploded, the reason for his suicidal attack was that he couldn't bear the loss of his dragon.

'Couldn't you have done that earlier?' Du Ebrithil asked her.

'Yes, but I couldn't remember how to do it.'

Du Ebrithil frowned but said nothing, she terrified him…

 _ **Eragon**_

The pinnacle of the palace was barely visible through the permeable fog. Picking up the pace of his sprint Eragon cast a few wards over himself. He wasn't sure about what the movement was but didn't think it would be wise to assume it was the migrants. He felt Saphira's presence tingling in his mind. He approached the nearest wall of the palace and hid behind it. Peering about the destroyed wall he saw almost nothing through the mist of the night. It had taken him almost a day to arrive at the mainland but he wasn't sure he wanted to be here. A flash of sudden light exploded to his right, causing him to immediately reach for his sword. A rider in clad blue armour penetrated the clouds and charged at him, armed with two swords. A familiar aura surrounded the soldier but Eragon couldn't pinpoint what the familiarity was.

Regardless, he unsheathed his sword and braced himself, taking a fighting stance. Brisingr made solid contact with the opposition's sword and a shower of sparks rained from the source of interaction. Eragon parried two more blows until he made a fatal error. The man had two swords, not one. Eragon locked Brisingr with one of the opponent's swords but forgot about the other, seizing his chance, the other man attempted a skewer at his abdomen. Eragon managed to spin on his right heel and push the sword out of his body from the momentum of the dab. He felt an excruciating pain boil up within himself as a kidney went flying through the air. The wounded area repaired itself but to his utter horror, the man pulled his sword back again and skewered his flesh from the same place once more. Once again, ridiculous pain overrode all his senses and he felt a large volume of blood trickle down his legs, seeping into his armour. Eragon used the magic from the chestplate to summon fire from his hand and launched it at the attacker. He felt relieved once the pressure on Brisingr was gone but he needed to prepare himself again. Eragon looked at the man and expected charred bits of metal on his armour but saw nothing, almost as though he dodged it knowing it was there.

Eragon unstably stood up and prepared himself for another set of clashes. He needed to relieve the man of one of his swords before he could do anything. Eragon was charged again by the attacker and prepared himself to loop his sword around the hand guard of the man. He was unsuccessful.

His sword looped around thin air as the attacker spun to the left, almost sidestepping, out of harm's way before striking Eragon in the back twice, making him loose his second set of organs. Eragon fell helplessly onto his knees before feeling cold steel pierce his heart… then again… his vision blurred as the pain ridiculed him almost, for not being able to take his life on several accounts. His face fell in the mud and as he turned around to look at his murderer. Who was he? What did he want? Why was he doing this? Where was Saphira? Why could he feel her presence and if she was near why didn't she come to help?

Discarding all thoughts Eragon only concentrated on Arya and his dragon as his final thoughts of his two century life that expanded to the furthest reaches of his mind… _I have failed you…_

 _ **Rya**_

Rya raced towards the area with the flash of light. Eragon hadn't arrived yet but Du Ebrithil and Du Dröttningu had both already reached them before him. This worried her. There was also something else that worried her. The flash of light hadn't seemed so far away yet they were running for about ten to fifteen minutes. Du Ebrithil stopped after a while and raised his hand to signal to the rest of them to halt. Among them were Arya, Blodhgarm, Du Ebrithil and Du Dröttningu along with Saphira and Moonstone in flight. They had surely travelled further than they anticipated yet the beam of light still looked like it was as far as when they started. Saphira continued to fly ahead with Moonstone behind her as they had both not seen Du Ebrithil's signal to stop.

Du Ebrithil turned to them all wearing a strange expression. 'We've been running through a loop. All of the trees and rocks seem like they are in the exact same place.'

Rya was puzzled but before she could say anything Arya snapped, 'how do you know?'

'We've been running for long enough for you to have realised that we haven't yet reached the farthest wall from where the migrant camp is. I saw it on the way there. The beam emanated from somewhere around there but we don't seem to have gone close to it all, or even reached the other side of the palace.'

'Although the palace is huge,' replied Du Dröttningu, 'it does seem strange that it's taking us this long to find the beam or the end of the palace. Rya and Du Ebrithil go back to the camp and send a few riders. Arya, Blodhgarm and I will continue.'

Rya turned back and started to run back in the opposite direction.

 _What is the point in going back? It's taken us this long to get to wherever the hell we are but to turn back will take a good long while. What's going on?_

After a few seconds of loud silence a clearing appeared. Both of them started to sprint until they reached it but to their bewilderment they had reached the migrant camp.

'What? This doesn't make sense!' Du Ebrithil exclaimed in total confusion. It took us so long to… wait…' he looked at a dumbfounded Rya who looked back at him like a lifeless puppet. 'We need to find the rest of them.'

Taking a long sigh Rya followed The Master back through the thick of the forest. They continued to sprint at full pelt, using extra energy from the belt Zenith had left for her. Rya ran with several questions in her head that she knew nobody could answer. After a few seconds, once again to her bewilderment, they spotted the other three as well as the two dragons.

'Hey!' Du Ebrithil called out to them. They all stopped and turned around immediately.

'I thought I told you to go back to the camp!' Du Dröttningu exclaimed. 'What are you doing back here?'

'We did,' Rya responded, 'we did go back and we've just returned. It only took a few seconds.'

Du Dröttningu and Arya exchanged frightened expressions. Rya confusion was overwhelming but she knew not to ask any questions. Unfortunately Blodhgarm was not so patient.

'What is going on?' he asked in a berated tone.

Nobody replied and another eerie silence filled the forest as they all remained quiet in intense thought.

A flapping noise came from the side of the forest where the beam of light was coming from. Every one of them unsheathed their swords within a split second.

Rya looked around at everybody and saw the level of panic written across their faces. Even she was scared but wasn't sure what it was. There was a sense of familiarity coming from the flapping which she could feel strongly affecting her.

The sound of a thousand twigs snapping filled the air and several armed men jumped out from the shadows. Three of them were in clad white armour and another wore green. One wielded two swords and another wielded a two handed sword as well as an array of weapons attached to his belt. All of them were rider swords but the green clad man had a rider sword but with a dim gem, almost as though it was dying. They engaged in combat as Rya embraced the challenge of dispatching the dual wielding soldier man. Rya pulled out two of her own swords, the ones from zenith and began to attack with full force. Parrying and striking faster than she ever had, Rya was engaged in a full scale battle against her combatant.

Rya noticed that all of them had visors covering their faces totally except for the eyes. After a few more moments of fighting, Rya locked the hand guards of both of their swords. She could feel that she was losing her ground. Undoubtedly her challenger was both more skilled and stronger than she was. The contestant broke the lock throwing her off balance and volleying it with a deflected blow. Rya stumbled backwards trying to regain her stance but was prevented from doing so by one strike after the other. She realised that the rest of them were also struggling to fend off their foes. Rya was surprised to see that even Du Dröttningu wasn't being able to do anything. Arya was on the floor and without any weapons, trumped by the green armoured man and, without any weapons or armour, Du Dröttningu was dodging and strafing slashes one after the other. Rya lost her concentration in seeing the sudden chaos of unknown warriors besting the best of Alagaësia. Rya finally lost her footing and fell to the floor. The attacker swung a downward hit which she rolled out of the way of. While facing away from her opponent, Rya executed a backward lunge and elbowed the man's helmet off his head and commenced a half-turn to decapitate him… only to find the most familiar face she could possibly ever see smash her face with the pommel of her sword before running off into the woods. The rest of the attackers also jumped into the woods grunting out of what seemed to be anger. Rya felt a torrent of blood wash her face with a warm oozing texture. She could feel herself slipping away. All of her comrades were on the floor, whether dead or alive she couldn't tell. Her mind became fuzzy almost from the loss of blood. The beam of light in the sky was gone and she dropped into an unwilling sleep…

 **And once again I finish on my traditional cliff hangers. There may be a few errors in spelling or a few things may not make sense and that's because my keyboard is really stiff and sometimes misses strokes. I also didn't have the time to proof read right now but I will once I do and will edit it accordingly.**

 **Anyway, leave a review tell me if there is anything I got wrong and a lot of the people that read this after a long time will probably have no clue what the heck is going on so you'll need to read this again from the beginning if you don't remember. If any of you have any ideas or anything please do leave it as a review or a private message and I will see what I can do about it.**

 **Thanks ;)**


	16. Chaos

**Chapter 16**

 **Yeah so the plot was very confusing for a bunch of people but that was how it was supposed to be. I got three PM's this morning and found that nobody understood it. The reason was that the last time I was writing this story I realised that there was no sense of foreshadowing or suspense in terms of the plot. Because of that I decided to expand the variety of the plot a little.**

 **Also, anyone who has played Call of Duty Black Ops Campaign will have a slight clue of what goes on in this chapter. It sort of links to Mason's situation in the chair and with Reznov, but the purpose isn't for it to be understood…**

A thudding noise came from somewhere to the left of him as well as the sound of a thousand flapping birds and then another crash as if they had all fallen to the ground. He looked to his right and saw Saphira slowly walking towards the two of tried to reach out to her with his mind but found a strong wall blocking him out. He tried to open his mouth to call her but only released a fountain of red liquid. Eragon's mind became blanked out for a few seconds out of the hurt and anger he felt towards her. She wasn't coming to help him.

 _What is she doing? Why doesn't she help me?_

'Kverk-' a punch to his face. He was stunned. Both physically and mentally. This man reacted faster than anyone he had ever fought. Even faster than Galbatorix had been. Eragon's blood loss was making him faint.

He had nothing to do but stare death straight into the eye. He looked at the man with the sword held above his head, ready to strike down. Eragon continued to stare and could make out the colour of his executors eyes - a sapphire blue and compared it to that of Oathbreaker. The man above him seemed to be hesitating. Never faltering in his gaze the stubborn rider continued to stare straight into the man's eyes and found a strange familiarity emanating from it until the man raised his sword ready to kill him. He braced himself ready to face death even though he had more regrets than he could count. Just as the blade was being brought down the rider closed his eyes and heard the clash of metal on metal. He heard a fight going on and decided to open his eyes.

Looking around, he saw another blue armoured man sparring with his newfound enemy. Eragon lay aside his confusion and drew energy from Oromis' gem. Revitalising himself, he healed the gashes in his body and restored his heart before it lost too much blood. He got up and limped towards the treeline. Once he was inside the dense forest he laid back against a tree. He summoned water using the power from his boots and drank from a cloth he ripped from underneath his armour… his armour… hadn't proved to be useful against his foe. The way Du Ebrithil made it out to be the quality of the pieces seemed flawless. Brisingr was still beside the wall where he had fought but Eragon had no will to go back. He had all the energy he needed embedded in his chest. Eragon reminded himself of the battle with Oromis' help. He tried to go over every detail of it, from the flash up to the moment he had been saved. The first and most obvious thing was that Saphira wasn't herself. Why hadn't she helped him? Was she being controlled?

The second thing he realised about her was that she was much larger than the last time he saw her. It had only been a day and yet she looked around twice the size of how large she was currently. The third thing about her that was surprising was how she had blocked him like he was never there.

Putting Saphira aside for a short while Eragon concentrated on the attacker. His footing, his sword, his face, his eyes, his armour, his style of fighting… everything seemed so familiar. It almost seemed as though Brom had come back from the dead to kill him. Whether it was Brom or someone else who's sparring was like that was a strange topic. The sword was what seemed the strangest. The one in the left hand was a replica of Brisingr.

Suddenly Oromis started to speak through thoughts so as to not induce him to speak loudly in the case that he was found.

 _Are you all right?_ he asked.

 _No. Nothing adds up. Why do I feel like I know him? And who was he?_

 _I felt that way too. His presence rang a bell, and so did duelling him. Almost as though I've fought him before one way or another._

 _I need to get to the migrants, if they're still alive. I don't know what's going on but nothing feels safe._

 _Are you sure you can carry on? You should rest._

 _No. I should've been there by now and I don't know whether it's safe out here or not. I need the Eldunarí. The damage he wrought on me was more than your gem contained. There was a powerful feel about his sword and I hate to think about what would have happened if I had more magic at my disposal. I tried to summon thunder but it didn't work. I need more power._

Oromis shuddered but kept quiet. He didn't care to ask his master what made him shudder and slowly stood up. Eragon crept through the forest at a rate so slow it made him worried whether he would be able to get there without bumping into any trouble. He eventually sped up slightly until he saw bodies on the floor in the distance. Keeping low he skulked closer to the bodies until he saw Rya, laying on the floor with a few others around her. As he came closer he saw that they were Arya, Du Ebrithil, Du Dröttningu and Blodhgarm.

Giving in to his instincts he ran to Arya and held his fingers next to her neck to check for a pulse. The faint beat of his elf's heart relieved him of most of his worries. He checked the rest of them and found that they were fine as well.

 _What?_

Why were they knocked out? Even Du Dröttningu.

Eragon slowly came to realise that this may be a trap which he had fallen right into. He leaped back into the treeline and waited for something to happen. Dread overcame him as he came to understand that there wasn't a sound to be heard across the whole forest. Usually in the night there were many magical birds that used to sing throughout the hours of darkness yet there wasn't a single one at that moment. What should he do? He stayed put for a few moments and just as he was about to move a large shadow blurred the clear light of the moon followed by another both of which started to become smaller. Two dragons landed in the clearing where his friends lay. One of them was Saphira. Eragon blended into the background casting a spell to refract all light off him and to cover his shadow. He was now invisible. He saw Rya suddenly shake and throw a hand up to her neck like she had felt where he had touched her. He waited for a few moments. A sudden wetness covered him but he didn't know where from. A large shadow tore at the light the moon was casting down on them and Eragon saw Saphira land throwing up clouds of what seemed to be water.

 _Where did water come from?_

The moment he saw Saphira he shuddered both out of anger and sadness.

Moonstone then landed beside Rya and gave a wing for her to take shelter under. Saphira took flight after a few seconds and so did Moonstone with Rya on his back.

 _What?_

His head full of questions he continued to move. The moon had almost reached its peak signalling midnight. After a few more minutes of almost silent movement he saw a fire from within the treeline. He looked up at the sky and saw the glow of the sun over the horizon.

 _WHAT? It was just approaching midnight._

He picked up the pace until he had finally arrived at the camp. The first thing he did was look around. Everything seemed fine. The migrants were everywhere and there was a significant lack of them in number. He could only see two of his elven bodyguards and counted fifteen riders among whom was one of the twins. Eragon searched for Saphira and saw her laying down beside Moonstone. How was she so calm?

Eragon sprinted towards the broken palace staying out of Saphira's sight to see what damage was done on his beloved home. The entire palace was gone. Shattered. Destroyed. Almost unrepairable. Tears started to fall from his eyes which confused him even more. There was a slight haze in his vision which was obscuring the edge of his field of view. Why was he crying over a building when all that was happening around him was making him go mad.

'Eragon?'

Arya's voice called him from behind and Eragon immediately span on his heel to turn around and to find nobody but the migrants.

'Arya?'

The haze in his vision slowly started to increase until only a small portion of his eyesight was clearly visible. He turned around again to look back into the palace and was suddenly taken aback by what he saw – the whole palace was perfectly back to what it looked like before the chaos. He shot a glance at Oromis who was just as amazed as he was. While he waited for his old master to say something he turned around and saw an eye. Saphira's eye staring straight at him. His mind blurred and a frenzy of voices passed through his mind.

A random spasm of exhaustion phased over him causing him to drop to his knees clutching his head. He wanted to stay awake… but couldn't.

 _ **Rya**_

Rya woke up from a feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around the clearing and threw her hand up to her neck were she could feel her pulse. A tingling sensation had passed over that area as though someone had touched it. She looked into the woods and saw a shadow of someone but didn't have the energy to stand up or do anything. She slowly let her hand fall back down to her sides and played dead with her eyes slightly open. The shadow didn't move. A few seconds later a torrent of water layered the forest in thick blankets of dankness. A larger shadow tore at the light the moon was giving off and Saphira landed with a great thump, throwing up a large shower from a deep puddle. Moonstone landed gracefully by her side and covered her with a wing. Rya continued to stare at the shadow and saw it shudder slightly. Saphira rubbed everyone with her muzzle and used her mouth to put them in a more comfortable position before taking flight again. Moonstone moved over to a position where he could over all of them with his wings and fell into a calm sleep. Rya could feel her dragon's tiredness and Saphira's restlessness but most of all, could feel her hair rising slightly from fear because the shadow had started to move in her direction. Rya tried to hide her fear but the moment the shadow came out from the canopy all that could be seen was a slight bit of hazy clear material in the shape of what seemed like a human. It walked past them and into the treeline behind her and continued to walk until it was inaudible among the dense rain. Through her fear she felt a small sense of pride. She was finally developing a clarity of hearing similar to that of an elf.

 _ **Eragon**_

The waves enveloped him in saltwater as he coughed and spluttered trying to get the acidic taste out of his mouth. Looking round he saw that he was on the beach and the sun had just set allowing the moon to become partitioned by the mountain. Oromis was looking at the ground with his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought.

A flash followed by a beam of light came from further into the mainland as a thick wall of fog lowered down from the sky. Oromis was also looking in that direction trying to make four from five and six.

 **A/N: four from five and six means that nothing makes sense for those that don't understand it.**

 **;)**

Eragon started to sprint in that direction. A breathtakingly beautiful event took place before him. Thousands of birds and creatures of millions of different colours emerged from the trees making Eragon stop in his tracks. Around ten seconds after the birds had taken flight they all dropped back down to the ground again, as if they had died mid-air. All the land animals and creatures also became suddenly lifeless.

The confused rider stared in horror at the massacre that had just taken place in front of him. Once again ridiculous pain took over him and he fell asleep.

Rya woke up and saw the shadow standing over her. A clear image of a dark and faceless person looking down at her with a sword in his hand…

 **I wanted to carry on but I need to go somewhere and am already late by around twenty minutes. Sorry for the confusion but it will all unravel at the end. If you want you can all make attempts at understanding the situation but I doubt anyone will guess correctly.**

 **;)**


	17. Fear

**Chapter 17**

The sky was a dark red the following morning. Something she had never seen before. There wasn't a cloud to obscure the sun yet the world seemed to be layered by blood. It seemed as though a war had taken place in the heavens. Several gashes of black were surrounded by oceans of red with the sun peeping through the dense gloom.

Rya stared at the sky for a few moments before looking around. Nothing abnormal – except from the sky. Standing up, she arched her back like she had seen Arya do several times. Moonstone stirred beside her and was unusually inactive. Whenever they woke up together, although she had only had him for a month, he would spring around and jump about. Rya laid down and leaned against Moonstone's face before stroking her beloved dragon.

 _Moonstone?_

 _Yes._

Moonstone hadn't learned to speak fully but understood basic words. Eragon had told her that Saphira had taken several weeks before she learned to say his name and the word yes.

 _Why is the sky red?_ she asked him.

The reply she received was a shrug of the shoulders he had learned from her. She chuckled at his attitude but then looked closely at his face. He seemed exhausted. It didn't seem right. Something was flashing in his eyes and as she looked closer she saw an array of words and letters flashing around in a discontinuous and irregular pattern. She leaned further forward and saw that they were of the ancient language but none of them were easily visible for her to read. Moonstone had relatively small eyes for a dragon but this didn't stop her curiosity. Upon query, Moonstone replied that he didn't know what it was or why it had started. A shuffling noise made her reach for her sword and Moonstone crane his neck slightly. Du Ebrithil had woken up. He seemed concussed and was shaking his head as if something was seated on it. His barely visible face was adorned with a forlorn expression the moment he looked up at the sky. He swivelled his head and his eyes fell on Rya. He stood up and shook violently, as if possessed, before returning to a catatonic state. After a few seconds he stretched his body and flexed his huge muscles. Being full human, he didn't have the grace of elves where they could make themselves denser. He walked over to Moonstone and Rya and seated himself on a small rock the size of a baby dragon. He stared at his feet for a short while before turning his face to the girl. He smiled. For some strange reason he smiled. Through all of the chaos came a bit of positivity from such a negatively charged person.

Rya's confusion asked her question for her.

'I've figured it out,' he began. 'The world is out of order because a legislation or something of the sort has been broken. Someone has knowingly done something wrong, inducing the world to go completely out of order. The only person I know who is capable of that is Oathbreaker. He had a prophecy.' He reached into his robes and pulled out a skin of water. After drinking it heartily he offered the remaining to Rya who downed the rest almost ravenously.

'What was the prophecy?' she asked.

Once again he smiled. 'To kill me. A witch by the name of Angela once was passing by the town we used to kill shades in. We started conversing with her cat. If I remember correctly the name was Solembum. Strange character. In fact, a werecat. Angela came and offered to read knuckles bones of dragons or something like that.'

He pulled out another skin and drank, making Rya wonder what else he could keep under there without anyone knowing about it.

He continued. 'For me, the bones were a mess. They didn't spell anything. They were all over the place. Some parts read that I would die any minute another part said I would have a dragon. Another part said I would meet my father again who's currently dead so I know that won't happen.'

Rya felt immediate guilt towards the man. 'I'm sorry,' she said solemnly.

Du Ebrithil laughed deeply before responding. 'If you knew my father you'd say the god's have blessed me. I hated him with every part of my soul. I feel _spiteful_ every time his name is mentioned.'

'Who was he?'

'Now that, I can't tell you. Anyway, so my prophecy was obviously not true but, Eragon… my friend Eragon. His was a nice one to start with. He was promised a blue dragon similar to that of another with his name – which obviously turned out to be the Eragon that you know. He was then promised love that would last forever. Along with this he was also promised great power but Angela said she couldn't tell whether it ended well or not. Anyway, the last thing that was mentioned was that he would kill me. After a few years he actually did try to kill me but failed. I beat him.

'In my years I have learned many things. Things that make sense as well as things that don't. Now, one thing that doesn't make sense right now is the red sky with black gashes. Only then did I realise what the chaos that is taking place is. Somebody has broken a law of the world which is causing it to react like this. The world is a sensitive place. Think of it as a scale. Perfectly balanced. If one side weighs a little too much, one side will plummet into chaos and the other side will ascend into a world of peace where everything is perfect until the scale is balanced again. The world is a sensitive place, my friend, and is far too dangerous for us to play around with. It's like a child playing with fire.'

Rya looked back up at the sky. She thought about how she normally would have reacted to seeing it like this and how she actually reacted. She didn't seem too surprised. The confusion around her had made it seem so normal.

Du Dröttningu was the next to wake up. Du Ebrithil ran to her side and helped her up. Rya looked away in sadness as she watched them embrace each other and exchange kisses. Every time she saw something that had anything to do with love, her mind went back to Murtagh. She hadn't realised his sudden love for her until he had been brutally butchered into mincemeat. Rya turned her head towards Moonstone and stared into his eyes. The array of words that were scrambled across his eyes were still there, not stopping.

Rya jumped from fright when Du Dröttningu laid a hand on her shoulder and knelt down to take a look at Moonstone's eye. Rya realised how her blue robes levitated without touching the wet mud on the ground. The damp air drained all sources of good moods out from everyone, not to mention the condition of the sky. Du Dröttningu continued to examine Moonstone's eyes for a while before she started to speak.

'Dragons reflect the condition of the world. Whatever is going on is reflecting off Moonstone's condition. If Saphira was here I could examine her too. But I have no clue what to read from it.'

'Du Ebrithil knows, you can ask him,' Rya suggested.

'I'll ask him later. First let me identify what the problem is with your dragon.'

Rya complied and gave the two of them some space. She went over to some dry space under a tree and sat down. Rya started to study the gedwëy ignasia until she got bored. The only interesting thing about it was that it glowed and that it was a bit warm whenever she used magic. She leaned against the tree with one leg spread out and the other bent. Her vision became unfocused until she looked deeper into the forest. Horror was the only word that could be used to describe what she saw. Hundreds of dead animals littered the floor as if they were killed for fun. None of them seemed to have anything wrong with them except a few birds that had fallen from quite a height. Rya suddenly snapped into reality.

 _What are we doing here? Why are we so comfortable in the middle of the forest?_

Eyeing Arya's body, she saw that the elf was waking up along with Blodhgarm.

 _I almost forgot! Du Dröttningu was nearly killed! How was that possible?_

Rya was just about to go and speak to her when Du Dröttningu abruptly shouted the word 'there'.

In the air was an image of what was in Moonstone's eyes. The words were easier to read than before and Rya could make out bits of it.

From what she could understand they were saying, _Beware of the diamond_.

Rya tried to understand the rest but was having problems because of the speed. Eragon had personally taken on the task of training her and they hadn't had an opportunity to actually learn much of the ancient language. All of what she knew was what Zenith had taught her.

Du Dröttningu seemed intrigued by the flashes and was studying them closely. Rya stood up and walked over to Du Dröttningu.

'Have you found anything?' she asked.

'Only a bit, but none of it rings a bell or signifies anything notable. I just can't decipher it as fast as it's flashing. I tried slowing down time but this seems to be from an alternate plain where things adapt to the speed of everything else. From what I understand it says "Beware of the four corners of the diamond". Whatever that's supposed to mean I have no clue.'

Rya looked back for a few seconds and saw Arya sheathing her sword. Rya realised that none of them had spoken about the attackers yet. Everything was so overwhelming that it induced fear making them forgetful.

Fear. What was it? An emotion? Or an illusion? In this case it seemed to be both. Eragon found himself laid down in the clearing he had seen his companions in, however, when there was no moon and the world was in chaos, the darkness seemed to be frightening even for a warrior. The sky was as dark as Shuriken's scales – and almost seemed as though it was made out of scales if not for the specks of light made by the stars. The rider sat up slowly so as to not disturb the stillness of the night. So still. Why was it so quiet? Why did the night never end? He craned his neck to the left and to the right in a motion that could only be compared to running water. Nothing. Nobody. Just darkness. His fears slightly alleviated. He found Brisingr attached to his side and he realised that he was, once again, in a dream he didn't know how to wake up from.

The forest seemed as empty as an abandoned graveyard, which nobody would be too positive about travelling through.

His hair stood on end as he peered into the pure darkness within the treeline. The prospect of walking through the forest again was quite daunting but he hadn't much of a choice. He started to walk. Each step that he took was louder than the last as though he was fading into existence. Senses charged, he continued to walk faster and louder with every stride as though gaining confidence little by little. He stumbled into a stop when a flicker of light reflected off the thick bark of a tree. Without thinking twice he dropped onto his stomach and stationed himself with harder roots than any plant in the forest. A female's voice was faintly audible to his elven ears but he still had no will to move from his position. The intensity of the light grew and so did the tension of the spring in his legs, ready to release at any given moment.

He felt something dragging at him to go forward but he stayed where he was. He hadn't the willpower to start moving and neither the bravery to check who and where the light was coming from. He blinked. In a flash he was out of the forest. Back by the sea. Eragon looked around. What was he doing here?

He looked into the distance and saw Arya and Rya walking towards him. Holding his ground, he prepared for what he knew would come. As they approached he blinked and was back in the forest again. Strange. Whenever something that made him slightly happy came near, he would be tossed back into a scenario that berated him. His body had a painful urge to scream out of rage but he knew that his current situation wouldn't be right if everything went too easily. Of course, everything had to hard for him. Why would anything be easy?

He continued through the treacherous silence until the flame he saw earlier was visible again. This time he walked towards the flame, but not carelessly. In the distance a woman holding up a torch was visible. She appeared to be facing away from him so he approached her but a painfully slow rate. His legs were trembling from exhaustion but he had to reach her quickly. Maybe this strange world would start to make sense if he could just speak to someone. His body had healed fully and now Oromis was no longer available for company. He was alone.

He came closer, and by every step new details were visible among the woman's clothing and appearance until there was only one impossible match for her in Eragon's mind – Angela the herbalist.


	18. Eye in the sky

**Eragon**

His conscience was hazy and his body unstable. What was Angela doing here? What was going on around him? Why was everything so chaotic? Eragon uneasily approached Angela and circled around her slowly until he was directly face to face with her. His fear grew as he got a clearer view of her appearance. Everything was fine except her eyeballs were missing and her skin was paler than anyone he knew. She was muttering words in the ancient language. As difficult as they were to make out, his proficiency allowed him to quickly decipher what she was saying over and over again.

 _Beware of the four corners of the diamond… Beware of the four corners of the diamond… beware of the four corners of the diamond…_

 _What? What is she saying?_

Again she repeated herself, and again. Eragon focused his attention to the forest again. The darkness shook him to his very core. The thickness of the evil that he could feel emanating from the depths of the trees was almost permeable. His senses suddenly heightened as the light from Angela's flame died. Eragon's snapped his head back to where the herbalist had been standing but found nothing or nobody but complete lack of light.

 **Rya**

The night had been a soft one as Rya rubbed sleep out of her eyes. She looked up into the red sky for a moment before glancing around for everyone else. They were all wake, staring at nothing in particular.

 _Hold on. What happened? Why are we here?_

She immediately felt a rush of fatigue before giving in to her exhaustion.

 **Eragon**

His only guide was his hearing. Nothing else was visible to him. The sound of the waves of the oceans was his only sense of direction. Holding out his arms in front of him to ensure he didn't bump into anything. Even with his elven sight the thick fog of blackness completely washed out his vision. The sky was a complete black with no stars or moon to guide him in any way. As he neared the sound of the waves, his vision opened up the sky to him. Confusion and fear instilled itself further into his soul as a red sky with the opening of what seemed like an eye stared down at him.

 _What's this red eye? It doesn't look friendly. Where's Saphira? Where's everybody?_

The red eye continued to observe him as he picked up the pace due to his reborn sight.

 _Finally. I can see again. But do I really want to look at that thing?_

Ergon emerged from the forest and found himself at the edge of the ocean. Anxiety crept through the limbs of his body as he saw another eye staring at him. Looking up he saw the very same staring down at him through the thin clouds that seemed to be the only separation between him and that stray organ in the sky. Looking back in the direction of the island, he could see that there was a sudden black cloud hovering above the centre of the forest. Curiosity was playing with his mind and he almost wanted to go back inside to investigate, but he n=knew better than to give in to these strange foreign thoughts. Foreign thoughts. These weren't his own. Whatever he was doing or thinking was being manipulated by something strange. Eragon felt as though he was just a passenger on board his body with someone else piloting it. As difficult as it was to understand, he knew he had to focus in order to maintain control over his conscience. He needed a companion. Eragon drew his sword and cut his hand in order to call Oromis into his mind… blood began gushing out from his hand and Oromis didn't appear. Healing himself, he dreaded the thought of having to traverse the island on his own under such strange circumstances. Why hadn't his master appeared? Whatever was going on, he'd have to overcome it alone…

 **Rya**

Rya awoke once again but before she looked around, remembered what had happened before the last time she had fallen asleep. She had looked up into the sky and before she knew it, was knocked out. She looked around the clearing they were in.

 _We've been here for five days. What are we doing?_

Before she could think of an answer, Arya stirred beside her and opened her eyes. Rya grabbed Arya's head before she could look up at the eye.

'Rya what are you doing?' Arya asked between a yawn and a sigh.

'Don't look at the sky. How long have we been here Arya?'

'I don't… know…' she replied, emotion beginning to fill her face.

'Exactly. Now, think about what you've been doing here since we arrived. Nothing. We've sat and slept. How are we not hungry? How are we not bored? How are we not concerned with about the migrants? Arya?'

The elven queen shook her head slightly before she looked around and replied, 'I don't know… what _are_ we doing here?'

 **Eragon**

He moved as swiftly as he could. While he ran, he realised something he should have realised before. Where were the inhabitants of the island? All the dragons? All the animals? All the riders and elves? No one was to be seen. But maybe he already knew that. Or did he not notice how all of this took place? His mind blurred slightly as an image of Angela came into his mind.

 _Argh! Why can't I stop seeing that bloody witch? But… I just saw her. How could I forget? She was…_

Eragon's mind suddenly blanked. Why was Angela popping up in his mind?

 _I just saw her! Why do I keep forgetting?_

Eragon could see the minaret-like opening of the Rider's Hall. He immediately remembered the blue rider that had attacked him and the other blue rider that had saved him. He needed to become more aware of what was going on around him.

He continued to sprint towards the palace before he stopped dead in his tracks. To his right, a rustling sound made him unintentionally draw Brisingr and take up a fighting stance. He slowly stepped forwards towards the source of the noise before he saw three elves and two humans walk out from the treeline. _Arya!_

 **Rya**

The silence of the clearing made it difficult not to panic while they waited for the last person to wake up. Du Ebrithil was sharpening his sword whilst Blodhgarm comforted Arya regarding Eragon. Du Dröttningu was the only one still asleep. Rya sat beside her waiting for Eragon's new teacher to wake up but it seemed to take forever. Rya looked over at Arya who seemed to be suddenly faint. The three others were instantly at her aid. Her body began shaking violently and a white froth started to bubble up inside her mouth. Rya felt a hand suddenly pull back before a flurry of blue robes collected themselves beside Arya. Du Dröttningu began chanting a spell to ease the pain of whatever was overcoming Arya. A red beam of light took all of them by surprise as Arya's body started to float in the air. All of them took their hands off the queen's body as the light from the eye penetrated her chest and made her body glow green. A thundering crash echoed through the sky sending shockwaves through the sky blowing trees around and uprooting small ones. Arya's body dropped back to the floor but not before Du Ebrithil managed to catch her.

'What happened to her?' Rya asked.

'I don't think any of us know dear,' Du Dröttningu replied grimly.

Du Ebrithil put her down and felt for a pulse. 'She's alive, but barely. She needs help.'

Blodhgarm spoke up, 'Then let's go. My queen is in danger. I will carry her.'

'As you wish Blodhgarm.'

Blodhgarm lifted Arya off from the ground. They all then turned towards the palace and ran at a breakneck pace. The forest seemed disturbed by something and the uneasiness crept through the others as well. Rya looked around and could see the worried expressions each of her companions bore. Something aside from everything they had already experienced didn't seem right. Everyone had just completely glossed over the beam of light from the eye. Whatever was taking place around them all was having strange effects on all of them. They continue to sprint towards the border of the trees. Rya was running alongside Blodhgarm. She could feel the rest of them pulling ahead as her exhaustion slowly took over, causing each stride to carry her less further forward than the last. Eventually she stopped, gasping for breath. The other three stopped and looked back at her awkwardly.

'I'm… sorry…' she said between each breath, 'I don't… think… I have… the same… amount of stamina… as all of… as all of you...'

Just as she finished her sentence, Arya took a random intake of air before exhaling as though exasperated. Her body was limp and she was gasping for as much air as Rya was.

'Arya Dröttning,' Blodhgarm said, as though greeting her.

'Blodhgarm? Where are we?' she asked.

'We are in the forest Arya, you passed out and we've had to carry you this far,' Du Ebrithil replied.

Rya snapped her eyes to Du Ebrithil, once again someone had completely glossed over what had truly happened.

The next three words struck quite hard on all of them.

'Who are you?'

Du Ebrithil and Blodhgarm exchanged worried looks before Blodhgarm set Arya down on the ground.

This time Rya spoke up, 'Arya? We're your friends, don't you recognise us?

'N-No, I don't.'

'Arya Dröttning, this isn't the time for games, we must leave this forest, strange things are taking place that we are not completely aware of yet,' said the wolf elf.

'Why are you calling me Dröttning?'

Dread filled Rya from to toe to top. What was Arya saying?

'You're… our queen Arya… what' wrong?'

'My mother is the queen. Stop playing around with me Blodhgarm. You know very well I do not like to associate myself with her. Why are you all staring at me like that?'

'Arya, how old are you?' Du Ebrithil asked.

'What is it to you? I don't even know you. Who are you?' she retorted.

Du Ebrithil replied calmly, 'Just a little curiosity.'

'If you must know, I have almost aged one century,' she replied calmly, before continuing, 'I have an important task to take care of so could you all please leave? I was told yesterday that I am to travel to the humans again at first light.'

'Arya…' Du Dröttningu started, 'Eragon already has the dragon egg. The war is over. He slew Galbatorix. Right now Alagaësia is in danger from another threat.'

'What nonsense are you talking about? Is this some sort of trick Blodhgarm? You know very well I do not care for the joy of the elves whilst other races suffer at the hands of the mad king.'

Du Ebrithil muttered under his breath before walking up to Arya and chanting a sell to put her to sleep.

'We must keep going. As sad as this is, now isn't the time to deal with it. We must continue. Rya, are you ready?' he asked.

'Yes, let's go.'

They all continued as a group, this time at a slower pace for Rya to keep up. As they ran, she thought over about everything that had just happened. This was among the grimmest events that had taken place since the eye had appeared.

As the four of them continued their trek, the end of the treeline became visible. They all rustled through what remained of the forest and emerged into the slightly brighter darkness. In front of them stood a fearful Eragon prepared to attack.

 **I'M BACK(AGAIN).**


	19. Balance

A stare down commenced between Eragon and the group. Neither willing to make the first move. It was too difficult to tell if either was friend or foe. The chaos surrounding them all was clouding their trust in each other. Rya stared into the face of her uncle, barely recognising who she saw in those eyes. A rift had made its way between them all. The silence that hung damp in the air seemed to be further elongated by the building tension, an almost permeable tension.

Eragon was the first to speak. 'Arya. What's wrong with Arya?'

Nobody answered. Rya suddenly felt incriminated for some strange reason. As though everything that was happening was her fault. She continued to stare at Eragon, something didn't seem right, even given the inexplicable circumstances they were under. The atmosphere of the situation seemed to grow suddenly warmer, as though both groups were about to attack each other. Rya's eyes unintentionally flickered upwards.

 _The sky blinked! Or was that just my mind. I could have sworn-_

'WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER?' Eragon bellowed.

'Wed don't know Eragon,' Du Ebrithil replied, 'we do not understand much of what is happening around us but-'

'Why is she unconscious?' the blue rider violently inquired.

This time it was Rya who responded, 'Eragon, what happened with Arya is not simple to explain, it will be better for us to find the palace then piece together everything we know.'

'You lie,' was all he said through gritted teeth, whilst taking up an offensive position with his sword.

'Eragon, what has gotten into you?' Du Dröttningu queried.

'I don't know, but something seems wrong with all of you. And I don't trust you right now,' he responded.

Immediately he charged at the group and would have hacked them all apart if not for Du Ebrithil. Unsheathing his retractable blades, he blocked two blows from Brisingr before sheathing one blade and dealing a direct blow to the rider's stomach, followed by a long series of fast but still relatively hard punches to his chest. Eragon shoved Du Ebrithil back but not fast enough, as Du Ebrithil had pecked his temple with his right hand. Eragon staggered backwards and Du Ebrithil dashed towards him to completely make him pass out. Rya could see blood pouring from Eragon's mouth and nose, feeling pity for the confused rider. Du Ebrithil jumped whilst spinning in the air to kick Eragon in the head and would have been successful if not for Du Dröttningu grappling him to the ground. Du Dröttningu immediately stood up and cast a spell on Eragon, the same as was done on Arya.

'Was that really necessary dear?' Du Dröttningu asked.

'Yes. Was your sudden action necessary?' Du Ebrithil replied.

'Don't make me answer that.'

Blodhgarm looked at the sleeping elf in his arms and then at Eragon. What had happened to both of them? One had lost their memories of the last two centuries and the other was willing to attack his associates without any warning or apparent reason.

Rya, once again, involuntarily looked back up at the sky.

 _It blinked again! I'm sure I saw it correctly. It blinked. That means… it's alive_ , she thought dreading the thought of whatever it was. Rya suddenly felt a pang of exhaustion. 'Let's get moving' was all she heard before passing out.

He rolled in agony as he experienced a burning flame ignite within him and completely corrode through every part of his body. He rolled to his right, felt more pain than before, and then rolled to his left. Still pain. A light of some sort was burning near his head. Somewhere to his right. Four people sat around it exchanging grim words with each other. His head felt numb but his body certainly didn't. The rider wished he could just pass out then and there. How much it would have eased the pain. He thought about how he ended up here. The last thing he remembered was battling another rider. Oathbreaker. Lightning had struck his body flinging bits of flesh and a few limbs all over the place. He remembered also seeing a vision of a forest. But not through his own eyes, as though they were someone else's. He remembered his dragon being injured by a larger blue dragon. Random clusters of memories rushed through his head as though he remembered everything he had experienced whilst being unconscious.

He tried to sit up but could not feel his legs. He looked to his right again. His vision had cleared slightly. Murtagh made out four hooded figures holding bowls, filled with a kind of soup. All of them drank till their bowls were empty and then continued to clean the insides with their mouths. Whoever these people were they hadn't eaten or drank in quite a while. Murtagh tried to clear his mind again but still he saw images of a forest and a red eye. He looked over to his left. There, chained to a large metal post lay Thorn. His beloved dragon. Murtagh tried to reach out to Thorn but realised he wasn't awake. Murtagh's ears slowly cleared away an eerie sound he hadn't realised and he could now hear the conversation of the hooded people.

'Why do we need to feed him so much? He's not even awake,' one complained.

'Because the master has ordered us to do so. We need him alive, or else the master cannot carry out his final mission. He needs the blue rider alive and this one here is linked with the other. If he dies so does the other.'

'Fine, but you're feeding him tonight.'

Murtagh's head span. Was this blue rider Eragon or Oathbreaker? He prayed it was the former.

A man walked over to Murtagh with a bowl in one hand and a large hunk of meat in the other.

'So, you're finally awake. I guess we don't need to feed you anymore. You can eat yourself.'

He placed the bowl near Murtagh's foot before walking over to thorn and shoving the meat into the dragon's mouth.

Murtagh managed to gather enough energy to sit up. He was chained to a post. Not good. Looking around he saw they were in a small cave with Thorn by the entrance. The red rider suddenly shivered from the cold. He picked up the bowl and peered inside. Nothing appealing. A random assortment of vegetables thrown into some heated water. Murtagh had no other choice. His stomach ached from hunger so he quickly drank the contents of the bowl and then continued to lick it clean. He now realised why the other hooded man had done the same.

Murtagh leaned of the post after tossing the empty bowl to the side. Another hooded man walked towards him. Murtagh braced himself. The man came and knelt in front of him.

'Are you ok? You were in quite a bad state when we found you,' came the voice of a woman.

'I'm fi-' he began but was cut off.

Another hooded figure spoke up between his reply. 'Do NOT speak to the prisoner!' he bellowed.

Murtagh suddenly recalled Eragon. His voice sounded exactly the same.

'I was just asking if he needed any help. You can see he's injured,' she retorted.

'Who are you people?' Murtagh asked.

'Now that, I can't tell you,' the woman said.

'I can,' the man with Eragon's voice replied. 'We are servants of the true leader of the riders. The brother of Vrael.'

Murtagh seemed confused. 'I didn't know he had any brothers. Who are you? Eragon?'

The man sighed before taking off his hood. Murtagh choked on his own breath when he saw the man's face. _Impossible…_

He was lying in a forest. A dark forest. A clearing now that he stood up up and looked around, an opening in the trees. Around him stood trees taller than he could see the tops of.

A flicker of movement caught his attention from behind a few bushes. As dark as it was, he could see quite clearly. The sky was a beautiful starry dark blue. The moon shone in its fullest form bathing the clearing in a silver glow. Eragon examined the darkness of the forest.

 _Why is my hair standing on end?_

'Who goes there?' he called. He repeated his question twice more.

After a while he convinced himself that there was no one in hiding in the cover of darkness. Eragon walked over to a tree and leant against it, allowing his legs to give way and sitting against the faded bark. He hadn't felt so peaceful in a long time, ever since… the eye. What had happened to it? Now that he thought about it, what had happened? Where was he?

A sinister chuckle emerged from the opposite end of the clearing. Eragon jumped up and braced himself. Out from the shadows came a tall, light brown man clothed completely in black. His nose was short and sharp, with a long mark running from one side of it to the other. His eyes were a dark brown, almost as black as his clothes.

'Tell me who you are,' Eragon demanded.

'Well, many people call us several things. You may know the term necromancer.'

Eragon cringed from surprised. 'No, impossible. Du Ebrithil exterminated you all. You're extinct. How can you be necromancers?'

'Ah, I see you don't realise why we were created, or how. You see necromancers are a race created from the darkness of the earth. We are born to balance the scales of the earth. The world is perfectly balanced but when that precise balance is tipped, we are created. You created us. You gave birth to us. I see you are confused,' the necromancer smiled.

'The world is divided into good and bad, light and dark if you will. You caused an imbalance by testing fate. You travelled back to Alagaësia. Now the chaos that is taking place around you is in order to rebalance that. You see, necromancers have been gifted with immense power. It cannot be measured. We can create illusions that solidify to become real. We can control the hearts of humans. We can even tear down space and time, as you have seen, we shuffled you backwards in time several times, but still you were not willing to give up on your journey.'

'What journey?' Eragon asked.

The necromancer continued, 'You set out on a task to bring order and peace to this realm, however, the balance is perfect everywhere else. Only Alagaësia has suffered at the hands of this imbalance, ever since you murdered the king Galbatorix. Every other realm in the world had just leaders that balanced the injustice of Galbatorix, but you, you had to go and murder him. That caused the world to enter a state of chaos. That chaos built and slowly increased until you had eventually broken the final law of the structure of The Diamond.'

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of Eragon's face. Had he really caused more destruction by ending the life of the dark king? Had he really done more evil than good?

'You broke the structure of The Diamond. The Diamond states that everyone and everything is bound by fate. You went and damaged that fine line. You caused the future to crash and rebuilt a completely different timeline. This damaged structure of the timeline has also caused the dragons to go out of existence except by the will of two people. You and that silly girl Rya. You have also caused the name of the ancient language to change. Arya has also lost many memories and this is all because of you.'

Eragon could not believe it. By not controlling himself he had jeopardised the entire existence of time itself. He could feel a distant beat of his heart while his mind became completely numb.

'But, you're supposed to be the ones to rebalance that scale. Why can't you do it now?'

'Well, interesting question that. We necromancers have lost our initial intentions. Only a few from our order remain willing to rebalance the world, but our rage at the world is a deep one. The majority of us feel as though we have been abandoned, and so, wish to remain in this world, by causing more destruction. We would be able to if not for your will and the will of that girl. You see, we all wanted this to happen. And we now adore you, but require you to die. If you die, then we continue to exist indefinitely. But the problem is, your conscience is too strong to take over by force, so I have come here with a proposition. Join our order, restore balance and we will all be able to continue living in this world without disrupting The Diamond. Think about it, we will be able to coexist peacefully without causing such heartache and ruin. Think of all the villagers you have been trying to protect. How many of them will die if The Diamond remains angry? Take my hand, join our order, and bring peace to the world. If you don't, you're as evil as, or worse than Galbatorix. You don't want to be like that do you?'

Eragon's mind burned from all this new information.

 _Am I really the one to blame for all of this? The deaths of the elves? The existence of Oathbreaker? The destruction of time? How much more evil could I become?_

A tear trickled down the edge of his jaw. It seemed to take forever to land. Every last joy he had experienced seemed to be sucked out if him. All he could think about was the negative aspects of the world. All he did was ask himself one question, over and over.

 _What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?_

'Eragon, listen, there is no need to cry. Just take my hand, and I will show you the truth and how we can resolve all of this. All you need to do is take my hand.'

Eragon fell to his knees before steeling himself. He stood up still crying. He lifted his hand, it shook aggressively but he knew what had to be done… he had to undo whatever he had done.


	20. Legendary Dragons

**Couldn't help myself. Had to start the next one straight away. Really enjoying the story at this point. I was reading through the whole of part 1 and 2 so far realising I added next to no context so I don't want to rush the plot this time.**

The whole world was spinning around him. At this point he didn't know if it was just him or the actual world. All he cared about was redemption from his mistakes. Eragon's tears didn't stop. He didn't know why he had no control over his own emotions. Was he that weak? Was it this weakness over his emotions that caused him to give up everything just to be with Arya? Arya… the one elf that had made him do all this. The truth stung him harder than anything from his past battles. Why had he done all this? Or was it his fault?

 _No…_ he thought to himself. _I wasn't the one that chose to go to Alagaësia. It was Arya that called me there. So why do I still feel responsible? Was killing Galbatorix that big a mistake that it caused everything else to go out of control? Am I that bad a person?_

'Eragon. You must decide quickly,' the necromancer urged, 'we are running out of time. The world is tearing apart for each second we waste.'

Eragon shook the tears from his eyes before holding out his hand again, this time more firmly than the last.

 _I'm ready._

The necromancer reached out towards Eragon. Each second that passed felt like an eternity. Everything he felt seemed so unreal. The necromancer's hand was half an inch away from Eragon's, until a bright flash of light exploded between the two of them. Eragon felt a strong pressure in his chest. The flash of light was followed by a shockwave sending the rider hurtling through the air as a twig would. He landed on his back as a dragon roared louder than any he had heard before. The landing had knocked the wind out of him but he still tried to sit up to see what the flash was. There, bathed in complete wight light stood Oromis, wielding a long elven sword and a bow and quiver of arrows hanging from his back. Behind him stood a tall white dragon larger than Saphira. Eragon could feel the raw power emanating from the majestic being. Every second a shockwave would pulse from it. Each heartbeat was audible and seemed like an earthquake. Eragon stared in awe as the dragon and rider stood between him and the necromancer.

'Foolish elf! Where did you come from?' the necromancer screamed.

'All I will say to you is, stay away from my student, I will not allow any harm to befall him while I exist,' Oromis replied grimly.

'Get out of my way! We need him!'

Oromis braced himself for a battle without another word. The dragon also seemed ready to tear apart anything that it wanted to. He was still in awe of the dragon. It was larger than Saphira in size and was more muscular that any he had ever seen or heard of. Whose was this?

The necromancer screamed and charged at Oromis suddenly brandishing a dark sword. Oromis changed his stance slightly and parried a blow from the necromancer, before stepping to the side and letting him fall. The dragon raised its foot to stomp on the fiend but a large black orb seemed to protect him. The dragon roared and stomped again but missed its target. The necromancer rolled out of the way and dived towards Oromis. The elf swung his sword at his opponent but before any contact could be made, the evil being disintegrated into tiny black particles.

'He has fled,' Oromis stated. 'Eragon what were you thinking? How did you let him fool you into accepting his crazy ideas?'

'I don't know what overcame me ebrithil. I apologise for my actions,' Eragon simply replied. He looked over at the white dragon. He walked over to the beautiful creature and touched its scales. Immediately he felt a burst of thunder, causing him to flinch and remove his hand from the boy involuntarily.

Reaching out his mind he asked, _Whose dragon are you?_

 _I am the dragon to the rider you call Du Ebrithil. My name is Whitestorm, you possess my Eldunarí in your armour. I have been gathering energy over the last 400 years for you to use, but be warned,_ Whitestorm leaned closer towards Eragon, _I will_ not _serve you for any evil intent. But, I shall protect you as best I can._

'Eragon, you must wake up,' Oromis suddenly urged.

'What do you-' Eragon began to ask but was cut off by the same order.

'I SAID NOW!'

He suddenly fell back into a laid down position. He awoke to find himself in the middle of an attack. Eragon jumped up and looked around. He was at the palace along with all of his other companions. The migrants were under attack… from necromancers.

The whole camp was in chaos. Thousands of dead villagers from Alagaësia lay motionless on the floor. Hundreds of tents and people were fuel for flames to devour.

Eragon had no idea as to what to do. The first that came to his mind was to unsheathe Brisingr and let his sword do the talking, so that was what he did. Eragon hacked and slashed at one necromancer after the other, after the other. All of them disintegrated into black particles before he moved onto the next. A piercing scream of a necromancer mixed itself with the cries of humans and elves as he slashed Brisingr through the air where a necromancer had been.

He looked around for Arya or Rya. He knew he had to find them but what would he do after that? He had taken the responsibility of protecting the humans and was currently doing a pretty bad job. A voice in his head suddenly emerged which he recognised as Oromis.

 _Eragon, you must summon Whitestorm, and do it quickly,_ Oromis insisted.

 _How ebrithil?_

 _Focus all your thoughts on the white dragon. It will require a lot of energy so use mine. You will not be able to see me for a few days but it is better than whatever else could happen. You need that dragon. He is the only one that can save you now. Reunite Du Ebrithil with his dragon by calling him from his Eldunarí. I will see you soon Eragon,_ Oromis said before fading from his mind.

Eragon started to think about Whitestorm. The huge legendary dragon.

 _Whitestorm, I need you,_ Eragon called to the Eldunarí.

 _I am here young one,_ came the reply.

Eragon continued to think hard about what he looked like, how shockwaves emerged each time he breathed. How his size and build were unmatched by any.

A sudden rush of fatigue bombarded the blue rider. He could feel his energy draining fast. Extremely fast for that matter. He could feel his mind becoming numb from strain and exhaustion so he began to call on the energy from Oromis' gem. Eragon also called upon the energy from inside Brisingr.

 _Lend me your power…_

He could feel the circulation of power within him. He could feel what it felt like to have more power than any being in Alagaësia. He knew what _true_ power felt like.

 _So this is what Galbatorix always wanted. True power…_

 _NO ERAGON!_ boomed Whitestorm's thoughts, _concentrate on what you are doing! Do not digress! Remember why you are here and what you need to do! Eragon! ERAGON!_

Suddenly he felt his conscience become overwhelmed by a mighty force. That which he had never experienced before. The force of this new presence was crushing that of his own. He could feel his conscience suffocating against between the walls of his conscience and that of the newcomer. This new presence in his mind projected anger but seemed to still care for him. It soon left and Eragon could feel a new and more profound exhaustion take over him. He could feel a battle brewing within his own self. One side lusting for power and the other protecting him from it. Eragon cleared his mind in order to continue with the summoning of the white dragon. The strain of holding such high levels of raw energy started to show through on his body. He could feel his body tensing up and felt as though he was ready to explode.

All of a sudden he opened his eyes and exploded in a fury of yellow light.

'HELP ME!' he screamed. 'There's too much energy!'

He felt a glove lift his right hand while a bare hand clenched it. Eragon felt the pressure on his body ease slowly as another soul carried part of his burden.

 _Arya…_ he thought before looking down to see Rya. His niece held his hand and was also letting out a huge stream of yellow light, just as he was. The energy was still too much to be contained in just two carriers. From the corner of his eye Eragon could see Du Dröttningu approaching but constantly being stopped by necromancers. Du Ebrithil also was in the same situation. Any necromancer that came near them evaporated almost immediately before making contact with the two formidable warriors. Eragon could see that the necromancers were trying to breach the wall of energy but were disintegrating the second any of them touched the surface of the light.

 _Almost there Eragon! Hold on!_ Whitestorm encouraged.

 _I'm… trying... I feel faint Whitestorm Elda… I need another carrier…_

'Eragon! What are you doing? Are you crazy?' Du Ebrithil screamed at him. Du Ebrithil hacked at another necromancer before continuing on his path towards the blue rider. One after another after another. The dark beasts just wouldn't stay down. Du Dröttningu seemed to be having the same issue, even with her exceptional magic, the numbers were too overwhelming.

'Eragon stop!' Du Dröttningu ordered. 'Whatever you're trying to do I too dangerous! Stop now while you still can!'

The power of the two gems was immense and would have destroyed him if not for the young rider that stood before him. The flow of light was causing him immense pain. After what seemed like an eternity, a magnificent roar bellowed from the sky. Lightning started to try and make its way to the ground. Thunder followed. Another roar. The same cycle.

Eragon could feel the energy starting to slow down. Huge clouds began gathering above where the battle was taking place. A white beam of lightning struck the ground with such force that a portion of the palace they were all fighting in front of fell apart. The dragon roared once again whist thunder and lightning raced each other. All combat had stopped. Everyone simply stared at the dragon that had materialised seemingly from just one bolt of light. All elves, humans, necromancers and riders edged away from the beast not knowing its side in this battle, or if it even had one.

From the silence Du Ebrithil started crying. Whitestorm looked down at his rider and a tear also fell from his eye. Eragon was shaken to his core. A dragon of such magnitude could feel such strong emotions for a human that was so small and insignificant in comparison to himself.

The necromancers all took to the skies but had made a huge error. Whitestorm bellowed once, causing shockwaves, throwing people and possessions off balance and almost into the air. From the sky a series of lightning bolts struck each necromancer, creating chains and attaching to another. In this fashion more than half of the necromancers had been wiped out. Before Whitestorm could roar once again, Du Ebrithil had ran up to him and had embraced a claw on the dragon's right foot. Eragon had never witnessed such a behaviour from his teacher before which was quite awe-inspiring. The humans and elves looked warily at Whitestorm before gradually adapting to the dragon's presence. Eragon hadn't realised how heavily he had been panting along with Rya.

The exhaustion was strong and he slowly felt his legs give way beneath him and his mind slowly let the subconscious take over.

The ground beneath him felt damp but the air tasted sweet, as though life had started anew in the world. Eragon's eyes weren't adjusted to such bright light given the experiences over the past few days. He was in a tent, or what was left of it. Bits of the cloth had been burnt and a few frames were bent out of shape or missing entirely. The sun shone through a hole, illuminating the shelter. From outside the tent, Eragon could hear the sound of clanging metal and sawing wood. Standing up, he donned his armour except the leggings from the necromancer race and left the tent. He looked around for someone he could recognise through the bustle of people that were busy repairing the palace. The eye in the sky was gone and the sun shone more brightly than he had ever seen before.

Du Dröttningu was standing giving orders to her sky elves regarding the rebuilding of the Riders Hall. Eragon bumped into several people by accident as he made his way over to where Du Dröttningu was standing. A lumberjack hit him from behind causing him to fall towards Du Dröttningu who swiftly sidestepped and caught him by the nape.

'We really must work on your reflexes. They just aren't as good as you need them to be.'

'Sorry Dröttningu, I just slipped,' Eragon apologised.

'Do not worry about it. We must begin your training if we are to defeat Oathbreaker, understand?'

'Yes ebrithil,' he replied, 'but not just right now. I must find Arya and Du Ebrithil. I must speak with him immediately.'

Du Dröttningu pointed him in the direction of where she had last seen Du Ebrithil and let him go on his way.

Eragon made his way over to a tent which Du Dröttningu had said he was last in, however, upon reaching the supposed dwelling of the white rider, he did not find his master.

He came out and looked around. On a hill in the distance Eragon could make out a huge dragon resting with its wings pointing upwards at the joints. Shimmers of blue reflections danced from its scales and a huge smile took over his forlorn expression. Without thinking twice he dashed over to Saphira and made contact with her mind, suddenly feeling a rush of familiarity.

* * *

The days had passed so quickly but still no sign of either his mate or master. Rain fell like pellets on the side of the palace walls which was now almost completely rebuilt. He lay in his room waiting for something to happen, as he did every day when he wasn't training with Du Dröttningu.

The first day had been hard. He had been told to manoeuvre a huge stone whilst battling with a sword. The next day he had spent receiving bruises from his new mistress. Being her student was not easy. She was relentless. Not caring to stop for breaks or giving any sort of reprieve.

 _It is for the better little one. It keeps you focused. Whilst we were with Oromis he tried to do the same thing as you may recall, but both of you suffered from a slight inability to train for long hours on end or execute difficult tasks. I believe this is exactly how the riders were also trained._

 _I understand. But why make the Rimgar more complicated than it already is? That must be the most difficult thing she's told me to do so far. She's changed it to make it more challenging, albeit more relaxing once you get accustomed to it. Have you found Du Ebrithil or Arya yet?_

 _No. what about Whitestorm's Eldunarí?_ Saphira asked.

 _Still nothing,_ he answered.

Oromis had made his way back into his gem the day before and had congratulated Eragon immensely on his ability to revive a dragon from nothing but his eldunarí.

A banging on the door took him out of his daydream. Eragon answered to find Blodhgarm, who instructed him to follow.

As they walked Eragon decided to take the opportunity to ask about Arya.

'Arya is the reason I am here Eragon. The state of the queen is a strange one and we were not prepared to let you know until now,' was his reply.

'Why? What's wrong?' Eragon asked worriedly.

'You shall see,' was all he received as an answer.

They made their way over to a room near the training arena. Eragon didn't recognise this new room.

 _Probably built newly with the rebuilding_ , he thought.

Blodhgarm knocked then held the door open for Eragon to enter, through which he did. The room wasn't too lavishly furnished. Just a bed, a table, a scrying mirror and a window for light.

The walls were made from cobble bricks and were painted over to give them a slightly more appealing look. The window looked in upon the training arena, although with quite a bad angle and not letting much sound in. probably the main reason they had chosen this room over others. On the bed lay a beautiful young elf, with black leggings and tunic… _not green._

Arya seemed somewhat shorter than before as well, and a little leaner. Nothing else about her seemed to have changed. Around her sat all of his new companions: Du Ebrithil, Du Dröttningu, Rya and Blodhgarm. The eldunarí he kept in his chest also seemed to be stirring now, as though it had been occupied with something else.

Eragon briskly made his way over to the bed Arya was lying on. She looked extremely peaceful and seemed like she wouldn't wake up for a long while.

Du Ebrithil broke the silence, 'She is under a spell I put on her, keeping her in this resting state. What has happened to her is difficult for any of us to understand but…' he trailed off.

'But what?' Eragon questioned.

After a sigh Du Dröttningu finished his sentence.

'She has lost many of her memories. She doesn't recognise any of us or you. She still believes we are in the war with Galbatorix and that she must carry Saphira's egg to the Varden tomorrow. This all happened during the time the eye was in the sky. The necromancers have something to do with this but we do not know what.

'What do you mean?' Eragon asked disbelievingly. 'Surely she must recognise me,' he protested.

'No Eragon. Sadly she doesn't recognise any of us except Blodhgarm. Not you, not me not your daughter.'

 _My daughter…_ his heart suddenly felt a pang of regret and pain. _How could I have forgotten?_

'Wake her up,' he ordered.

'But erago-'

'WAKE HER UP!' he bellowed.

The entire palace seemed to fall silent.

Reluctantly Du Ebrithil muttered a few words thereafter saying, 'As you wish Eragon, but you may not like what you see. We have tried calling on the magic within Whitestorm but nothing has worked. All we need is-'

'Be quiet,' Eragon snapped before turning to face his beloved elf.

He stroked her hair as she stirred in her sleep, before snapping her eyes open and staring into the room. Her facial expression seemed to be that of confusion as she stared into the face of the rider she loved… or once loved. Arya raised her elbow extremely swiftly into Eragon's jaw, blanking out his mind for a moment. She rolled off the bed she was on and immediately took up a fighting stance, without weapons. She looked around the room at the many faces that stared at her, all of them wearing expressions of deep sadness.

'Arya, it's me, Eragon. what has gotten into you?' he asked her.

'Who are you? I don't know any of you! Why do you insist on telling me that you know me?' she retorted instantly.

'Arya,' Eragon's voice began to crack, 'I'm you're mate. Do you not recognise me?'

'What lies. You question my chastity? We are in the midst of a great war and you all still insist on wasting time here?'

She had obviously been very dedicated at her task.

They all spent several hours trying to explain to her how the war had ended but she insisted that it was ongoing. Eventually Eragon took a hold of her arm and dragged her outside the palace. He counted eight dragons flying at that moment.

'Look! Look up at the sky! Are they dragons? Or other creatures?' Eragon asked intensely.

'Dragons…' Arya's voice seemed to be completely overcome with awe.

'Yes Arya dragons. You were successful in your mission to find the rider of the blue egg. That was me. I rescued you from Gil'ead with my brother and then we travelled to the Varden with an army of kull at our heels. Do you seriously not remember all of this?' he inquired.

'No… no, I… don't,' she replied.

Eragon wiped a heap of sweat from his brow before leaving her alone to stare at the dragons and walking away towards where Saphira lay beside Whitestorm.

Eragon slumped down beside Saphira leaning on her powerful body.

 _Saphira… she doesn't recognise me! Not one bit. I cannot believe it. How could she forget?_

 _Be calm little one. She may soon realise everything that has come to pass,_ Saphira reassured him.

 _Your dragon is right young one,_ Whitestorm's thoughts boomed. _There may still be a chance that she will remember. We just need to find out how her memory was altered in the first place. As you may recall. The necromancer said to you that the shifting of the balance had caused Arya to lose many of her memories. I do not believe this is true. In fact I think something else has taken place. Either the necromancers directly did something to her or something else went wrong._

 _I understand Whitestorm Elda,_ Eragon replied respectfully.

How he wished the war in Alagaësia continued. Just so he could be with her while she still remembered him. If there was any way they could both be together again as mates, he would tear the world apart himself to do so.

 _If only there was something I could do._

From nowhere, a thud in Eragon's mind made his head ache.

 _He was tied to a post. A woman and man were arguing over something. He felt sick. How could this happen? How could someone so loyal and honourable turn against everything they had fought for? Why had they fought then in the first place? How could this have happened?_

 _From the corner of his eye a man in black clothes shook hands with the man in the hood. Did this hooded person realise who he was trying to kill? Did he realise who he was truly serving? A madman. No other explanation could suffice. How could this have happened…_

Eragon awoke in a large room. He was in his personal quarters. How did he end up here?

 _Must have passed out,_ he thought.

Who had he seen in that vision? A necromancer had been making an alliance with someone but who could it have been. It almost seemed the like the same way Eragon had nearly embraced the necromancers.

* * *

The next few days seemed to pass by strangely. Arya seemed like she had no purpose and almost deliberately avoided Eragon wherever she went. Du Dröttningu's training did not become easier in the slightest, instead consistently toughening. He had finally gained a chance to see his first born, Selena. The sight of the child had brought tears to Eragon's eyes, how he had his daughter in his hands but the mother did not recognise either of them. Eragon had become lazy when he wasn't training. He simply ignored Rya on some days when Du Dröttningu had been especially hard on him.

One morning the sun felt amazing on his skin but he felt empty. On his right in some sort of cot lay his daughter, who was mostly taken care of by the maids in the palace. The rest of the time, he was carrying her around, reaching his mind out to her and trying to explain things about the world to her.

This particular morning she seemed to be gone already. Eragon simply stared at the empty cot for a while before Saphira contacted him.

 _Eragon? You're awake. Quickly, come to the main hall. A meeting is being held by Du Dröttningu. She seems to have taken charge of the riders and with better leadership than you ever did,_ Saphira teased.

Eragon simply grunted and got out of his bed. Having put on his clothes, he left his armour and weapons and hurriedly made his way towards the riders' hall. Upon entering the hall, he looked around at those participating in the meeting. Just the few basic people he expected, and for some strange reason, this group included Rya almost as if filling in for Arya.

Eragon took a seat beside Rya whilst the rest of them began talking about battle plans and other things of the sort. Just as the meeting was about to end, Du Dröttningu brought up Whitestorm.

'None of us know how or why he appeared, but he has caused a new threat to arise. Whenever one legendary dragon is reborn, the other two are also, the only issue is who they will be reborn to, us or them,' she said darkly.

Rya nudged Eragon and whispered asking him what a legendary dragon was.

'No idea Rya,' was his reply.

Upon inquiry he was informed that a legendary dragon was one of the three guardians on nature. Whitestorm was the guardian of thunder and storms. The other was Vrael's dragon Umaroth. He was the guardian of fire and land. The third hadn't been recorded yet but was supposedly the guardian of the oceans. A guardian dragon would appear at a time of great need, and so would its eldunarí. This was why Whitestorm had remained so dormant when Eragon had taken it from Du Ebrithil.

Eragon also learned that a legendary dragon could survive without its rider and could choose any new rider at will, which is how Du Ebrithil was chosen. Whitestorm was the oldest of the three dragons but certainly not the most powerful. That honour had belonged to Vrael. The guardian of fire and land was by far the most powerful of them all.

Eragon recalled how Whitestorm had taken out the necromancers using thunder. He had heard stories about how Umaroth had burned Shurikan's stomach scorching the area even darker than it already was during their battle against Galbatorix.

'If Whitestorm returned to Du Ebrithil won't Umaroth return to Vrael?' Eragon asked after the complicated explanation.

'No. The dragon chooses a new rider under normal circumstances, however, you awakened Whitestorm directly from his eldunarí. This was because you needed him at a time of great importance. Had you not already been assigned a dragon, you would have received Whitestorm as a dragon. We can only pray that one of the two white eggs we have holds another guardian, if not then we will be in a worse situation than before,' Du Dröttningu ended.

'I assume Whitestorm has started training Saphira?' Du Ebrithil asked.

'Yes, I think so ebrithil,' he answered.

Eragon thought about everything that was going on as he walked back towards his room.

Three legendary dragons were powerful enough to destroy several dragon riders in one strike. They had one. Two could be assigned to either Oathbreaker or them. Arya had lost all her memories. Selena was more or less motherless as she approached half a year of age. Necromancers had allied themselves with someone that seemed quite dangerous and… _Murtagh was alive!_

 **Sorry if it's too long. Got a bit carried away.**


	21. Shattered

**_An extra chapter since I'm feeling so good._**

 _The sky reminded her of a rider. The days when she would look up during her time with the Varden and just spend hours staring as both dragon and rider conquered the open air every day. Even in Ellesméra, the two of them would hardly been seen without the other unless during training. And then back with the Varden. During the battles for freedom. The battles for justice. All of these moments seemed so distant. As if they had never happened. How she wished to spend just one hour, if not one day, with the rider she had grown to care so much about. The forests and the sky had lost their meaning. Her duties as a queen were in no way more difficult than parting with him. The nightmares would just get worse. They started out with him just leaving, but soon, as months passed by, those images during the night had turned to violent torture scenes that would haunt her throughout daylight hours and revisit her while she slept. Every second was agonising. Every tear useless. She should have allowed what the two of them so desperately desired. To be together…_

Snowflakes began to fall in large numbers as the biting frost died away giving permission for the softer incarnation of itself to take over the landscape. The winters on Edoc'sil Deloi were harsh and unforgiving. An issue with this new habitat of the dragons was that during the winter, the cold would penetrate the brightest flame but during the summers, no reserve of water was cool enough for anyone to take comfort in without using magic.

The emptiness of his room was beginning to play games with his head. Bringing back the memories of when he had left Alagaësia for the riders' cause, to ensure they had a brighter future than the one fate had planned for them so long ago before the reign of tyranny. No number of fairths had been able to soothe the aching pain of regret that had engraved itself into his heart. No amount of scrying had made the situation any easier. Instead he felt inhuman, trying to force himself to believe that they could have a future together.

Eragon sighed and turned over inside the sheets of his bed. On the side of his mattress sat Rya, comforting Selena who had perhaps been crying or growing restless. Rya was the only family he had now, besides Selena. Whatever the necromancers had done to Arya had a deep-rooted effect, completely blocking him out. She was beginning to remember certain things, but everything she recalled was without him involved. Was he being wiped from history?

Selena started to wail once again, whilst Rya continued to rock her back and forth saying, 'there, there.'

Eragon wished it was that easy to soothe the pain he was feeling as well. A tear fell from his eyes and he quickly turned away before Rya could see. He didn't want his niece thinking of him as weak. That would not be good for morale, if his own student believed he was cracking under Arya's absence. Eragon knew that by now the whole of Alagaësia had been conquered by Oathbreaker. He needed to be prepared for when the tyrant would attack his island. He needed to be prepared for anything.

He slid out his bed adorned himself with a few spells to keep the cold at bay and left the room letting Rya know he'd be gone for a while. Something about Rya told him that the girl wasn't someone ordinary. She was special, but what destiny had in store for her, they would have to wait to find out. Eragon strolled through the forests blanketed in snow. As the flakes fell, he admired how beautiful they appeared to be. He had a good hour or so before his training with Du Dröttningu would begin so he seized this opportunity to the fullest by taking in all of the beauty around him. Only one thought disturbed him, Arya. That elf had captivated him from the second he had seen her in his dream before reaching Gil'ead. Her beauty had taken over his whole mind, even while she slept. Tears flowed from his eyes again creating a silver river across his face. He clenched his eyes shut as tight as he could, forcing himself to fight his destroyed heart. He had broken before because of Arya during the Agaetí Blödhren when she had rejected his plea to be with her. He had been broken once again when he left Alagaësia and she had refused to come with him, and now he felt as if he was about to break again due to the suffering he was undergoing. The necromancers had done more damage to him this way than if they had killed him. They had shattered the whole hierarchy of his understanding of the world. The only things keeping him from joining Brom in the void was his new hope that Murtagh was alive and the two family members he had in the palace, Rya and Selena.

Through a watery frown the destroyed rider approached a cliff. He walked right to the edge of it and gave his legs a rest, dangling them off the huge rock. Eragon had given up fighting the tears. He had lost so many of his friends and family in the first war and now was he to lose another? But not by death. This one was by estrangement. He looked up at the cloudy sky and felt the aching of his heart slightly alleviate. Looking back down at the lake at the bottom of the cliff, he saw only ice. Something, he thought, that characterised his emotions in his current state. A flicker of movement suddenly caught his attention. Down near the frozen water, leaning against a tree, sat an elf with raven black hair and, seemingly glinting, green eyes. He shuddered at the same time as he sighed and looked away.

But how could he? The difficulty of being so distant from her made it difficult not to look back again. Arya seemed to be studying the gedwëy ignasia on her palm.

 _Firnen is dead,_ he thought. _She must be quite confused as to where that mark had come from._

As he thought, Saphira landed beside him with a thud. She prodded at his mind and he reluctantly let down his mental barriers.

He could feel Saphira's whole mind filled with sympathy and couldn't contain himself. He let loose a torrent of tears that threatened to wet all of his clothes. Saphira pulled him closer to her and covered him with her wing. The snow didn't seem to disturb her at all, even without any wards.

 _Little one please, cheer up. All you do these days is think, cry and train. It pains me to see you like this. It reminds me of the days when we first arrived here. Please do not make us both go through this again._

Eragon didn't reply. He simply held onto Saphira's flank and wept. If anything could ever console him it was his dragon, but right now, even she wasn't successful.

Saphira's sorrow flowed through their link and they simply sat in that position for an hour or so. The ferocity of the weather increased and Eragon decided it was time to go to Du Dröttningu. Before leaving the cliff he took one last glance at the one he loved before turning away.

Eragon didn't hold anything back while training. It helped him get his mind off the elf and was what he used to do back with Oromis. Oromis had given him the advice to just be patient and to 'see how things turned out' but so far, nothing had happened except more heartache for Eragon. Occasionally he would receive visions from Murtagh who he could tell wasn't facing the best of times but he knew that there was nothing they could do. The only thing Murtagh could do was to endure whatever hardships were being thrown his way until Eragon had completed all of his training. He had tried to scry his brother but that had resulted in nothing but a blank puddle of water and a grey mirror. The two of them had met once in a dream where they had exchanged what had transpired around them and Eragon had expressed his grief for Murtagh who insisted it wasn't much he was experiencing and that the hunger was the most difficult part.

He finished off the Rimgar in an ice cold flowing river and walked out without a shudder. Du Dröttningu handed him a towel which he used to dry off the upper half of his body. He sat down on a small boulder and clothed his upper half with a dark tunic. He could feel the dark gaze of Du Dröttningu on the back of his neck but couldn't care less. Given the temperature of his body, he supposed that she was worried as to why he wasn't shivering and the reason for that was that the temperature he was experiencing internally had finally reached an equilibrium with his outer self. A hand rested on his right shoulder as Du Dröttningu knelt beside Eragon. She simply stared at his face for a minute before using her left hand to hold his face towards hers. Examining his face closely she pulled him into a sudden embrace.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I'm putting you through so much even after everything you have experienced. If you so desire, we can continue your training sometime in the future. I understand what you are going through right now. I cannot imagine how it must be for you, but I do understand. Just know this, I will always be here for you through the hardest of times, just as my father was and is. He cared for you Eragon and I have also grown to care for you. If Glaedr Elda entrusted his gem to you then surely my father must have thought quite highly of you. And now Du Ebrithil's dragon revealed himself to you. Du Ebrithil also cares very much for you. We all do Eragon. Never feel as though you are alone.'

She gave his shoulder a light squeeze before leaving him to his thoughts. He buried his face in his hands and let his emotions take over once again.

He didn't know how long he had spent there. Maybe an hour, two even? His hands were completely soaked from tears whilst his throat pleaded for hydration. Eragon couldn't care less. Just as fate cared so little for him.

A small hand stroked his back from the base of his spine all the way up to his nape. Not looking up he continued to cry. Whoever it was could wait. He felt the hand tugging at the side of his face pulling it in the direction its owner was coming from. There, still clothed in black, stood Arya, the splendid queen of the elves.

 _Her eyes were drenched. She awoke to find herself on a large tree near Tialdari Hall. Little time did she spend with her subordinates. She had lost count of the number of times she had considered handing over the crown to someone else but had been stopped by the memory of her mother. Her mother who she had despised through every waking moment of her life was now gone. Oromis who had treated her like a father was gone. Glaedr Elda who had advised her through several situations in life was also gone. And now her dearest friend Eragon. Four decades had passed and still she had received no message from him. Nothing. She found it quite appalling, her situation, she was a lost cause – weeping over a mere boy. But he wasn't just a boy. She knew that as well as he did. But why was she crying like this? Did she have some connection with him that she wasn't willing to admit? Or was there something she wanted from him or wanted to give him? She screamed into the air before punching the ground as hard as she could. When would this all end…_


	22. Return of the Red Rider

_Another decade of heartache. Each second felt like another century. So much had transpired but still no Eragon. Scrying didn't seem to work as the resulting image was always a blank grey. Shattered fairths lay all around her on the floor. Only one remained intact. The one Eragon had made of her during their last few days together. Why must it be so difficult to endure? Behind her, the sound of another person made her spin faster than an arrow could leave a charged bow. In the same room as her stood… Oromis?_

Frozen on the spot he could do nothing but stare at the elf that stood before him. His heart was stuck in his throat as he took in her beauty once more. His heart began beating faster than before and his mind felt slightly fuzzy. The scent of pine needles was making his nose itch while he felt the emerald gaze of his significant other burn through his emotionless stature.

Arya seemed to be rooted to the spot. She suddenly gasped before blinking and looking around as though just waking up from sleep.

'I- I'm sorry, I didn't know what overcame me something just felt so strange when… oh never mind,' she stuttered. 'I just saw you crying from a distance and was wondering if you needed any… assistance,' the elf ended awkwardly.

'I- I…' he trailed off before letting loose a few more tears. As he looked up at Arya all he could see was confusion. Nothing he recognised about her was visible within her.

'I hear you've… lost someone very dear to you.'

He nodded again. 'They were closer to my soul than my body is,' he replied.

She knelt down beside after he finished his sentence.

'I too have lost someone dear to me. His name was Faolin. I don't fully understand what is what that I felt for him… but all I remember is that he was my closest friend.'

A tear fell from her eye while she spoke. Involuntarily his hand moved underneath the tear and didn't let it fall to the ground. He then wiped away the stain it had left behind it. Arya suddenly shuddered for no apparent reason before standing up and bidding him farewell. Thereafter she darted her head away from him and walked into the snowy forest.

Once again he was alone.

'Wrong Eragon. You are never alone,' Oromis stated from his gem, 'look at Saphira. She has been watching you patiently for the past thirty days without fail. My daughter and her mate also are with you and so is the descendant of your cousin Roran. Do not feel so down. If you didn't realise Arya is slowly rekindling her bond with you. It's in her nature. You may not know but both of you are bound to each other and that bond cannot be broken, by necromancers, by Oathbreaker, by elves, humans, dwarves or dragons. Nothing can separate the two of you.'

 _Thank you ebrithil…_

The next few days were difficult but Eragon took the advice of his master and focused on what was important. During his training sessions he would realise Arya sitting a little way away from where he was and could feel her watch him. Du Dröttningu had once contacted him mentally to let him know she was watching so as to boost his spirit. This made it easier for him to cope with his distress. Eragon had decided that the way forward was to move back, to move back to before they were even friends.

The days slowly passed and he started to see more of her. She would watch him as he trained and would sometimes even follow him to his room. Eragon tried his hardest to ignore her, to let her adapt to him naturally. Each day felt longer than the last as time moved on but his heart hadn't healed. Someone in the Varden had once told him that time was a great healer after he had lost Murtagh, but he now realised how it wasn't so.

Eragon continued to work on Rya in order to further her understanding and competence involved with being a rider. When he wasn't training or being trained, Du Ebrithil would be bashing him apart with bruises from his sword. Oftentimes he would think about his father, Brom. The man he had felt so comfortable with but angry with at the same time. He only wished he had been able to spend just one more day with him, but not as a student or a travelling companion, but rather, the way a father and a son would.

Eragon felt a renewed rush of tears, the memories of his father once again bringing back the thoughts of how many he had lost during the great war. Although the outcome had been pleasant, the road to that victory had scarred his soul in so many unimaginable ways. He thought about the hardships he had faced on his journey with Brom, then with Murtagh. Then he recalled how they had saved the elven princess from Durza, after which they travelled to Farthen Dur. The war costing the lives of so many against the urgals.

The lives that had been lost in the battles for the cities on their path to Galbatorix. All of this made him feel sick. How could he rest in this room knowing how many had died fighting for the future of Alagaësia? He should be mourning the loss of each and every individual life, but here he was, the great leader of the riders, broken over one elf.

Eragon craned his neck over in the direction where Selena lay peacefully. The girl was beautiful, just like her mother. Black hair, emerald green eyes and overall an adorable appearance. Albeit an infant, anyone would have thought that the father wasn't at all related to the child, the resemblance she held with Arya was too strong to denounce that she wasn't the mother. For this reason, Eragon kept Selena out of Arya's sight, to not guilt trip her into loving him again.

A knock on the door was followed by a distressed Rya poking her head through the ajar gap.

'Eragon come quickly! Murtagh has just washed up on the beach. He's not in a good condition,' she said before dashing down the hallway outside.

Eragon immediately picked up a random tunic he found which turned out to be a navy blue, before walking over to Selena and taking her in his arms. Thereafter he briskly strode out of the chamber, not caring to shut the door behind him.

 _Saphira! Where are you?_ He called reaching out his mind throughout the vast island.

 _I am on the beach where Murtagh is. Whitestorm and I were locked in combat until he noticed our friend lying on the floor. He is seemingly quite shaken about something but we don't know what. Moonstone is here too. I think he may have found Murtagh before we did. Should I come over to you?_ she offered.

 _No, keep an eye on him. Make sure he is safe and that he is ok until we arrive,_ he ordered.

 _We?_

 _Selena, Rya and I,_ he responded. He couldn't help the flow of sadness between their link.

 _Alright but hurry,_ she urged before closing her mind off from his.

Eragon dashed with Selena in his arms towards the beach Saphira had indicated. Upon arrival he could see both Whitestorm and Saphira covering both sides of the red rider with their flanks in order to keep him warm. Eragon had forgotten to cast a spell for heat to protect Selena but assumed that the cloth he was using was enough for now. As he approached he could see his brother shivering uncontrollably. Behind him he could hear Rya approaching along with several other riders and dragons. Kneeling besides the poor man, Eragon embraced him, but not too heavily since he hadn't been able to lay his daughter down anywhere and was hugging Murtagh with her in between.

'Murtagh?' he called to the red rider who was seemingly blank with fear, 'Murtagh!' he called again. No reply.

Murtagh's eyes unexpectedly snapped to meet Eragon's which made him cringe slightly but he recovered quickly. Recognition flowed through the face of his beloved brother which soon melded together with sadness. Murtagh reached forward for Eragon and embraced him tightly. Eragon kept his back bent outwards so as to keep Selena safe.

As they both held each other in one long squeeze, he could hear sniffing and sensed tears on his shoulder.

'Th- th- they- they killed Thorn…' The last word was hardly a whisper.

The whole world entered a crazy vertigo for him. Who was Murtagh referring to? If this person was Oathbreaker they would pay dearly for what they had done.

'Eragon… Eragon… they killed him. THEY KILLED HIM!' he yelled.

Selena started to wail. Saphira bent her head down in sadness. Whitestorm also did the same. Moonstone seemed to understand what was going on and also complied with the senior dragons. All of the riders behind seemed to have fallen silent. Eragon suddenly saw Rya approach Murtagh from the side. She held out her hand and stroked the dragonless rider on the back before giving in to the tears that threatened to break loose from her wide eyes. She also embraced Murtagh who seemed to recognise her and joined her into the encirclement of lamenters.

 _Whoever did this will pay dearly. Nobody harms my family and lives to see the light of another day. Nobody._

He gestured to Rya to take Selena from him. He stood up and walked over to Saphira, stroking his dragon between her magnificent eyes.

 _Are you ready to avenge our lost brother?_ He asked darkly.

 _Yes,_ was her reply. Blunt yet sharp.

Eragon mounted Saphira who turned towards the direction of Alagaësia, and took flight… and would have continued if not for the white dragon behind them.

Whitestorm had grabbed Saphira's wings and used his weight to force Saphira back down to the ground. Once grounded, Eragon rolled off whilst the two dragons let their claws and teeth speak for them. Saphira was more agile than Whitestorm's bulky figure but not fast enough to avoid a foot stomping her into the ground painlessly and forcing her into submission.

 _What were the two of you thinking?_ His thoughts boomed.

Du Ebrithil and Du Dröttningu had also arrived at the beach.

 _You would have been slaughtered. Whoever it was that murdered our brother, Thorn, would not think twice before killing you if engaged in battle._ Whitestorm's rage echoed throughout the minds of every present being. _Let us hear more from Murtagh so we can understand our enemy before rushing into battle like a mere animal. Next time think before you act!_

The pair of them stayed silent, as did everyone else. Saphira lifted her head out of the sand, shaking the dust off. The only noise was the wailing of Selena. Eragon made his way over to his daughter and took her back into his arms. Holding her close to his chest, he ordered that Murtagh be taken in and treated medically before any further questioning. He ordered that he be fed and allowed to rest thereafter, before any further contact was to be made with him.

Eragon waited patiently outside Murtagh's room with Rya leaning against him and Selena in his arms. Every now and then Rya would enter the room to feed their guest before leaving again and waiting for him to recover from his emotional shock.

Every time he opened his mind, grief and utter sadness hung in the air like a bad smell. The death of one's dragon wasn't an easy burden. His brother's gedwëy ignasia had gone dark and grey, just as Arya's had. The red rider had been tortured but kept on the brink of life throughout his time with whoever had captured him.

'Eragon…' Murtagh called from inside.

Hastily he got to his feet and barged open the thick wooden door, all the while rocking his daughter. Eragon wasn't the fatherly type but he knew that without a mother, the best his daughter had was him.

'Yes Murtagh?'

'I… I have something to tell you,' Murtagh started through struggled breathing. 'The… the one who killed thorn was… it was…'

Anyone would have thought that Murtagh had trailed off, but the concentration of his elven hearing told him otherwise. The name had been said barely as a whisper, yet he had heard it and was no shivering uncontrollably. _How could this have happened? Roran?_

 _Oromis seemed to be intrigued by the number of destroyed images of Eragon there were on her floor. Facing her, the old elf studied her confused, forlorn expression. How had he entered? 'Oromis?' she called out to what she perceived to be a ghost._

' _You miss him don't you?' he stated rather than asked. 'I too reminisce of his presence. Why don't you go and visit him?'_

' _I-I can't Oromis elda. You know I can't. My duties as a queen bind me here,' she replied gloomily._

' _Then let someone else take care of your position while you are gone. Or do you plan to not return if you go? I'll leave you with that thought. You just haven't been yourself lately so I just came by to give you some advice. Farewell,' he said before fading away._

 _Holding out her hands where he had been Arya called for him again. 'Oromis? Oromis wait! Come back! I… I need… you…' she breathed. Everyone she loved was gone. What was she still doing here?_

Do not worry Arya, we shall see them both again, _Firnen reassured._

 **Not the greatest writing I've ever done but oh well. Felt a little down while I was doing this. Won't disappoint next time.**


End file.
